"Buber and Me", or, "Why my Ethics Professor Totally RAWKS"

[fredericks]

My ethics class this evening was AMAZING. I'm sitting here some two hours after leaving Hunter still in awe. Even though he walked in looking really frazzled, the professor was on point with everything, particularly the funny. To wit, here are some quotes I culled from our lecture:

Prof: Anti-solipsism rocks!
Classmate: What does that mean, for the uninitiated?
Prof: What does that mean? That anti-solipsism is really really good.

Prof: A lot of things happened around 1500. Martin Luther tacked his theses...theses, with a T-H, on the church door.

Prof: The plague came around what? the 14th century, and that was a big thing. It decimated a third, two thirds...? anyone know? four-thirds of the European population.
Classmate: Wow. That's one-third more than [Noah's] flood [did]!
Prof: Right. And you guys thought you had it rough.

I mean...there's no way you can't love the guy. I sent this letter when I came home:
Hello Professor X,

I just wanted to drop a quick word and say that this evening's Ethics class TOTALLY ROCKED. Seriously. At first I thought you were going all tangent-like, but then I realized you just, like, made the formerly (for me, at least) incomprehensible Buber reading clear as Dasani Water. I was bowled over by how much we covered on our way to directly addressing Buber and how it all sunk it for me! It was magic. Amazing. Flow. Almost (dare I say it) an I-You moment with the material. And you were the instigator.

You're my hero for the day (week, if the payroll person doesn't stiff me on my paycheck). Really and truly. Thank you for being such a great professor.

Have a good Spring Break, you and yours.

Sincerely,
Some anonymous student who doesn't really want to put his/her name on this e-mail just in case he/she's unethically accused of grade-grubbing (which I'm NOT)


...only thing is to be fully anonymous I sent it via my Yahoo address...which sticks the sender's name on top of e-mails. I didn't realize this until afterwards. D'oh.

Comments

[enigmaticjess.livejournal.com]

You are the shit. So's your instructor. Don't you love it when you have instructors like that? Like my Acting Prof. I almost resent that we met under the student/teacher framework, b/c I'd LOVE to know him outside of that context, as a person, as a friend. I hope your class rocks the casbah!

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

that class sounds amazing. good on you for telling the prof he helped you out; they're really glad to get that kind of feedback. and "d'oh!"

[zelle999.livejournal.com]

Freddy, you are the BOMB.

It figures, eh?

[aniseastra.livejournal.com]

I wish I had had a professor like that!

[deathmonkey06.livejournal.com]

My English Lit professor was like that. He was a grad student, and he was more than likely gay, and he was the funniest man ever. He was super dramatic and he was always making fun of things we read. Brian rocked.