The Dignified Professor

I'm going to do something I promised in my Navigation Bar...to plagiarize like hell. And, I'm going to try to avoid all the clever little 'tricks' like links and colored words to emphasize points (well, mostly...)...I'm just going to let you stew on these words, written sixty-some-odd-years ago, and see if they ring true for you as much as they do for me...in spite of our technological advances...

In a former incarnation I was a math/physics 'minor', because the rumor was to land a teaching job, and particularly a teaching/coaching job, you needed to teach a 'solid' subject. When it became apparent my coaching skills had advanced to the point to guarantee a position, I abandoned the math/physics as too, um...'abstract'...for an Exercise and Sports Science combination...and my Master's studies and thesis also lent themselves to that pursuit.

Well...long story short, I've NEVER lost my interest in math and physics (stay with me, stay with me, there IS a point to this rant...), and, to this day, read mostly non-fiction, and, mostly, research in quantum physics. Weird, I know, for someone who has taught Health Education for 33 years...but I can't keep my hands off the stuff...

OK...another long story short. One of my favorite 'characters' in the business is Richard P. Feynman (Nobel prize winner: EDP, I forget what year...). Anyway, as usual, I 'm spending my 'off' summer hours reading about him (Classic Feynman edited by Ralph Leighton.)

I have to quote him, for the benefit of ALL of us in this forum: "I don't believe I can really do without teaching. The reason is, I have to have something so that when I don't have any ideas and I'm not getting anywhere I can say to myself, at least I'm living, at least I'm doing something; I'm making some contribution-it's just psychological."

Continuing... "The questions of the students are often the source of new research. They often ask profound questions that I've thought about at some time, but have given up for awhile." And, ..."So I find that teaching and the students keeps my life going, and I would never accept any position in which I agreed where I don't have to teach".

I'm not doing Feynman nor his intense love of teaching justice by paraphrasing a couple of lines, here, so I'll continue this rant when I have a bit more time...it's just, in spite of our vast technological leaps, we still need TEACHERS...thank you, Drape, for acknowledging that...even us old farts need to hear that stuff...