This week, as I join everybody in the lounge, I’d like to chat about what might be considered the opposite side of the “Ethic of Caring in Teaching” coin - appreciation. As I watch the accolades pour in to pay tribute to my fallen colleague, Professor Diane Courselle, whose care for her students I discussed last week, I see how much these same students appreciated Professor Courselle’s approaches to teaching and, in turn, how much the students appreciated her.
This topic, appreciation, was on my mind earlier this week and this month. Earlier this week, I was discussing how educators and theorists have framed, over the past century or so, what was and is needed from teachers for optimal student achievement, especially teachers serving historically marginalized communities. That discussion led us to Brown v. Board of Education and the arguments articulated by Justice Thurgood Marshall. I then added that we likely would not know Justice Marshall as we do today without the guidance he received from Charles Hamilton Houston. After a quick summary of Professor (and Dean) Houston’s biography, I concluded by emphasizing that Justice Marshall often acknowledged Professor Houston’s importance to his (Justice Marshall’s) intellectual development. Additionally, earlier this month, I was reflecting on Professor Houston as I remembered his birthday – September 3, 1895.
So, I’d like this week’s post and comments to be a space for appreciation. As a professor, what professor/teacher do you most appreciate for their role in helping you get to where you are today? What did that person do and how did they affect you so significantly that they are labeled the professor/teacher you most appreciate? Does this person know the level of importance they played in your intellectual development?
I’m quite sure that the professor who affected me most as a law student has no idea about the role he played. I know I had no idea at the time and I only began to realize it as I heard his words and thoughts come out in my own lectures. As I reflect back to his lectures, I now know that he was a crit. I don’t know to which of the many forms of critical theory he most closely identified, but, I know by the way that he questioned norms and power that he was a crit. We had no specific classes titled Critical Legal Studies or Critical Race Theory, so, at the time, I was not able to fully identify or name his ideology. Understanding his theoretical foundation would not come for many years and, by that time, he had long moved on from that law school. So, in case you spend time in The Faculty Lounge, thank you so very much Professor Robert Davidow. My law students hear you through me.
Now, will you take the time to do the same? Will you pay tribute to someone who your students will likely never meet but whose brilliance they’re receiving through you? And, if you know how to contact that person, will you forward your tribute to them so they’ll know just how much you appreciate them? I bet they’ll appreciate it.
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