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Wanted:
Passionate Professor Each Sunday night, in addition to being sure I watch “The Practice” (9 p.m. on ABC, Channel 8), I have become addicted to a show that focuses on a topic that I would usually avoid listening to ... a college professor The Education of Max Bickford” (7 p.m. CBS, Channel 11) focuses on the life of the title character, a 50-something history professor portrayed by Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss. Bickford is a single father and a widower, leaving him to care for his 11-year-old son Lester (Eric Ian Goldberg) and his daughter Nell (Katee Sackhoff) who is a freshman at the all-female college at which Bickford teaches. Perhaps the most enjoyable interaction in the show is the way Bickford deals with fellow professor Andrea Haskell (Marcia Gay Harden), who was tabbed for an endowed professorship for which Bickford was shooting. This especially agitated Bickford because when Haskell was an undergraduate at the college, Bickford was her mentor and the couple had an affair. Another enjoyable aspect of the show is the way the professors interact with their students. Despite Haskell’s and Bickford’s contrasting teaching styles they both affect their students’ lives. I’m sure most of you haven’t seen the show, and I am sure you would rather not be bored by every last detail of the show, so I will get to my point. The enthusiasm that the professors show is something that should be prominent on this campus as well, and, in many cases, it is. On the show there are professors depicted who are not in tune with their students and probably would rather be somewhere else, but the professors on whom the show focuses are the two who go out of their way to enlighten and educate their students. TCU paints a picture that the faculty here is much the same way. Like sugar plums on Christmas Eve, the professor-student relationship here is advertised as an interactive learning experience, with faculty and students hand in hand in their education.
As we embark on a new semester some students will find themselves in cramped lecture halls, with others having to sit on the stairs before likely dropping the class. Although the professors in those classes will certainly give it the old college try in educating them, it is unlikely that the professor will know many of their students’ names by the end of the semester. Now that I am a senior, I am fortunate enough to be in classes that have around 15 students. The professors in the classes I have had in these past few semesters can tell you who I am and would recognize me if I walked by. But even more important than the small class sizes, and something that is constantly shown in “Max Bickford,” are classes where students and teachers discuss topics. The professors in the show don’t simply stand at a chalkboard and spout out facts and figures. There are few things in life that I find more pointless than a multiple choice exam. What is the point of cramming all night before an exam to merely bubble a Scantron and by the next class have no idea what you were tested about just a couple of days prior? Education is much more effective if you have the give-and-take relationship between instructors and students. It is important for students to learn why a discipline’s concepts have been established as a standard. Talking about those concepts with an expert in the field is far more valuable for students than deciding whether you should bubble “b” or “c.” I would encourage TCU administrators to seek out professors who are passionate about teaching in a manner that encourages students to think critically and not simply regurgitate information. If administrators would like an example of what I am talking about, tune in on Sunday nights. Associate News Editor Aaron Chimbel is a senior broadcast journalism major from Plano. He can be reached at a.a.chimbel@student.tcu.edu. |
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