Passion?

There have been a few postings of the future of Web 2.0 in schools and where it needs to go, what is needed next and who will bring it forward. One thread has been around passion for teaching. It was my great delight to watch the recent PBS series on the Supreme Court. One of the commentators was R. Kent Newmyer, now Professor Emeritus of the University of Connecticut. The face was older, more worn, but it was the same man who taught me now 30 years ago. I can still remember the days in a corner classroom in Storrs Hall with views across the campus more conducive to daydreaming than attention ( my grades in his class showed that) and this gentle scholar leading us through the cases and decisions that shaped the Supreme Court and thus our country. It was a simple classroom, old one arm bandit chairs, a table at the front, and a cheap plywood speaker lectern that was placed on the table. He used few blackboard notes, preferring lecture. It was exactly what is frowned on in today’s teaching - the sage on the stage. What I remember vividly was his passion, in his voice and in his manner. I have this picture of how his knuckles turned white as he gripped the lectern as he described the animosity between Marshall and Jefferson. I may not have absorbed as much as I should, and his teachings have faded in my memories over time, but I knew that I was in the presence of a great scholar, one that had a great mastery of his subject, and had much to teach me. He once remarked in class about the sense of public service of the founding fathers and how impressed he was by a student who thanked him for his teaching, because it was important, and that the student was thinking that someday he hoped that he could be a Senator or Governor. Newmyer remarked that he hoped that some of us would feel the same way. Thirty years later the picture of his face on a TV show brings those memories flooding back. You can have your wiki’s and blogosphere, your moodles, and delicious tags, but one man, a lectern, and a page of notes still reaches me. You don’t think passion matters? Thanks, Dr. Newmyer!
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