Good Will Hunting

Alright, so I decided to take a slightly different tack with this post, and ask my readership (now threatening to climb to the astonishing census of maybe four or five devotees) what are your three most influential classes/teachers of all time, and why? (Post on your blogs or leave comments if you don't have one).

Mine, from undergrad, in no particular order:

1. Orientalism, taught by Professor John Newman, who was rumored to have had the honor of hosting the Dali Lama at this house (I actually believe this urban New College legend) is an extremely cool Buddhist and scholar. Despite disagreeing with E. Said on several points that I won't go on about in length here (I wrote an essay critiquing his weighty tome Orientalism and no one is probably interested, given there are real, legitimate scholars out there who have actual published papers that are probably one hundred times more illuminating and thoughtful than my Courier-font-1.5-inch-margin-twelve-page undergrad paper). Any way, the discussions in this class confirmed some of the nagging inklings I'd been having for quite some time regarding the academic and cultural hegemony of the "West." That class provided some of the most influential and deeply impressive formative influence on my worldview ever.

2. German Theology and the Historical Jesus, taught by Professor Mike Michalson, who I have always respected and admired as a teacher and a person. He's the quintessential professor, all wise and learned. Like, what Socrates-was-to-Plato/ Dumbledore-is-to-Harry-Potter kind of influential/mentor. (Okay, so I'm sure there are better philosophical-to- pop culture references out there, I just can't think of any at the moment.) That class opened up an entire new world of critical thinking and sparked a deep appreciation for the disciplines of philosophy and theology. Not to mention Professor Michalson was one of the first undergraduate professors whose kind and constructive comments on my pithy essay work (on Kant, actually) gave me the confidence to keep on in a class full of terribly intimidating third and fourth years (how wise and learned they sounded!) when I was just a meek and scared-to-death first year. And the whole Kant mania thing I developed I have to credit to him, too, which makes me quirky, at least in my current profession. And he never, ever laughed and made fun of my stupid Kant thesis--at least to my face--which must have taken some doing on his part, considering he is a Kant scholar, and how thoroughly mediocre and unoriginal my thesis was, despite my really hard work and fun I had with the footnote feature of Word proccessor.

2. Elementary Latin, taught by Professor David Rohrbacher. To tell you the truth, I can't remember why the hell I thought taking Elementary Latin in my final year at New College would be beneficial (I certainly didn't need it for my concentration) and I was one of only two seniors in a sea of first years in that class (the other being Rachel Corkle, who went on to win a Fulbright and do PhD work in French and did need the class to complete her fourth year). I think I took it because I needed to fill up my course load, and I refused to take any more French, my skill level having been a horrid affront to the francophone culture for years. I don't know what it is I like so much about Latin, actually; maybe I enjoy the relative strategic simplicity of memorizing hundreds of declensions and conjugations of verbs and Latin translation is like figuring out a puzzle, kind of like the verbal equivalent to solving a math equation, except one at which I can actually succeed. And the class/teacher was funny and not scary at all, and mostly full of endearing ickle firsties, like Michael, who was a really nice kid and deserves a nice life. Go, Michael! Any way, because Latin was so academically rewarding in ways French was conversely not I of course was a total Classics convert. And now I go around and scream and point like a Beatles-fan when I see Latin I can translate, which I'm guessing is probably one of the highest compliments you can pay a Latin professor.

4.) Honorable mention must be made to my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Mark James, who taught English that year. We all thought he was like, totally cool because he was young, unmarried and wore jeans to class every day. I think half of the girls in my class had crushes on him. I didn't, but any way, I was a weird kid who liked reading books and read more of them than I had friends. Any way, one day he pulled me aside and pressed a copy of "Strunk and White: Elements of Style" in my hand and told me I should continue to write, because I was good at it. Every time I pass that particular book in a store, I think of Mr. James, and silently vow to one day publish something and dedicate it at least partially in honor of him. Meanwhile, I'll work on my comma usage and try not to split my infinitives so often.

Okay, fess up folks... who/what influenced you the most during school?