“Bob warned the students that they were going to encounter experiences that they would have difficulty in handling that they couldn’t change in ways that they might not like. You could, he would warn them, become people that your parents won’t like as much as they like you now. That fit into Bob’s theme, perhaps the most pronounced theme that characterized his pedagogical style and his personality, that learning is dangerous, it’s a risky venture and if it doesn’t become dangerous you’re not probing very deeply. He was Socratic, pushy, challenging, discomforting.
–John Chandler,
former Williams College president
former Williams College president