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You are here: Home » Chapter 3 » Part 8

IN THE CLASSROOM
“Silence is Suspect”

Yeah, He Was Kooky

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I think there was a concern on the part of people like [Prof.] Dudley Bahlman about that method, and that approach to students chiefly. It wasn’t a question of method. It was a question of the proper faculty/student relationship. Some were critical of Bob because he would never justify his approach theoretically, you know. If […]

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He was a little kooky but it was within the realm of operationally OK. I had to run a department. Bob was a fine member. Bob was teaching things within political theory I considered semi-fringy at that time. A lot of students who took his courses and became like devotees of it would somehow look […]

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Bob never gave an answer to his students. He threw out questions at them year after year, but would never give a conclusion that students could take home with them.

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Not everybody enjoyed his classroom. There was something unfinished about it when you were done. The consequences of having this sort of 24-hour-a-day conversation called “the work of the class” meant that it put an extraordinary burden on the student who was wrestling with other courses. It never resolved itself. There was no ending, no […]

CHAPTERS

Introduction
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Final Note

Chapter 3: IN THE CLASSROOM

  • 1. First Encounters
  • 2. Certainty to Uncertainty
  • 3. The Nocturnal Council
  • 4. The Shocking 10 Ballots and Other Moments
  • 5. The Individual Student
  • 6. What to Teach? Plato and “High Noon”
  • 7. A Hard Act to Follow
  • 8. Yeah, He Was Kooky
  • 9. The Size of The Table
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