I am fortunate that I had a class with the natural Santa Claus. A kind, gentle soul who also knew how to keep track of who was naughty and nice. The beard helped.
In the spring of my freshman year at Coe I took a class in Sociology. (I really like Sociology but it wasn't until grad school before I took more classes. Only in Sociology classes do I think, "I am the most conservative person in the room.")
The class with Professor Flanagan was eye-opening. Sociology should be named the "social science that studies all the ways the world is unfair." I have thought about the class many times since coming here.
I also think about him from a teaching standpoint: In his class he assigned a book to read but never talked about it in class. On the midterm he asked an essay question about the book worth 20% of the grade. At first I was angry. I thought, "If it is that frickin' important why didn't you talk about it at least once in class?" Then I paused and thought, "Welcome to college."
As a teacher I have never followed Professor Flanagan's example. I pretty much give test questions that come from lecture - I consider it a reward for those who stay awake in my class... but this semester I failed to mention a topic in one of my classes and a few students were upset to get questions about it. It was in the textbook so I had no problem smiling and saying, "Welcome to college!"
Cheers Professor Flanagan! I really wish I had had a chance to talk to you about all that I have learned about "income stratification" since I arrived in the Emirates. I'm one of your students who greatly appreciated you as a teacher and I'm only mad at myself for getting a B in your class.
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