Devil's Advocate Teachers (was: Philosophical Questions For Everyone)

blpurdom at yahoo.com blpurdom at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 6 14:14:07 UTC 2001


Reading the posts about the professor who made a less-than-sensitive 
remark about the attack on the Pentagon reminded me of my days about 
17 years ago as a student advisor/ombudsman.  My job was to listen to 
students' complaints/concerns about instructors and to try to work 
out disputes between them.  Most departments had one SA/O, but I 
was "shared" by the Intellectual Heritage (IH) and the Classics 
departments.  At Temple U., IH is the same as Western Civ elsewhere; 
a two-semester survey that every freshman must take, regardless of 
the school or college in which they are enrolled at the university.  
Since I was in the honors program, I was lucky enough to get full 
professors (and very good ones), instead of graduate students.

However, some of the freshman honors students were not prepared for 
one professor in particular from the Religion department (the IH 
department had no faculty but drew on various departments in the 
College of Arts & Sciences).  He was the devil's advocate incarnate.  
He revelled in making statements that he knew would set people off, 
and even though every freshman at the university took this course and 
he taught only one section, nine out of ten students waiting outside 
my office to grouse about a teacher were there because of him.

Since I had had him for IH myself, when students started going off 
about what he was like in class, I knew exactly what they were 
talking about.  I tried to explain his teaching methods; they weren't 
accustomed to a teacher who WANTED them to argue.  This was 
especially valued in honors classes.  Most students understood what I 
was talking about, and when I genuinely thought he'd gone over the 
line and the student deserved an apology, it was always graciously 
given.  His goal was not offend, but to get students thinking.  He 
often elicited a very visceral reaction, which he valued more than 
merely intellectual musings.  He was always my husband's favorite 
professor (he had him for IH, too) and when he went to the man's 
funeral a couple of years ago, he was quite broken up for days, 
thinking of all of the funny/touching/bizarre things people had to 
say at the memorial service, which had a HUGE turnout.

So although it's possible that the professor in question was simply 
being insensitve to the nth degree, it is also possible that this is 
someone who uses the same sort of devil's advocate teaching methods 
as my old IH professor, and he perhaps WANTED the kind of visceral 
reaction he elicited.  Of course, he obviously miscalculated when it 
came to HOW MUCH of a visceral reaction, but professors are not gods; 
they make mistakes too.

--Barb






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