2007 Awards for Excellence in the Teaching of the Classics

2007 Awards for Excellence in the Teaching of Classics

Life at a small liberal arts college, especially at a women’s college, is a proverbial fishbowl. Everyone knows everyone else and it is impossible to hide. This honoree thrives in such an environment. His home phone number, known on campus as the Latin or Greek hot line, is such common knowledge that a passing reference to it at a college-wide convocation led the entire student body to recite the number in unison. This hotline number, one might add, is open every day until at least midnight and is heavily used.

Now imagine an undergraduate at this same women’s college talking on her cell phone about one of her classes and saying “Mom, all of the smartest students are in there; the professors are kicking our butts; it’s fantastic. This is why I came to college.”

Now imagine this same conversation being overheard by the dean of the college who is so intrigued by this young woman’s enthusiasm that he invited himself to the class and came away thoroughly impressed with this colleague’s rigor and intensity of the experience that his summary comment was “Arcadia couldn’t have been any better.”

Now imagine an early-morning class of young women marching around the classroom while reciting their latest grammatical paradigm and beaming as their professor informs them that they are acting like Aristotle’s students, the Peripatetics. More than one student in this honoree’s elementary Latin and Greek classes speaks with fondness of her instructor’s use of wordplay, etymology and mnemonic devices as pedagogical tools. It would be unlikely that many of these students would forget his ingenious insertion of the Greek particle “an” into the English word “potential” to create his so-called “pot-an-tial” optative. Nor would they fail to recall his striking “children’s menu” of the House of Atreus.

Finally imagine this honoree dragging to class what his students fondly call his “bottomless book bag” in which he carries books from his own collection in order to recommend them to his students and pass them around the class. These same students blame him for their own ever-expanding personal libraries. How many professors are praised by their students for collection development in the college library? This honoree has been so acclaimed, and more often than once! And how many professors have their own student-created fan-club on Facebook where they share his more memorable quotes, funny stories and strange quirks, like his guitar amp collection and his fondness for dachshunds?

Even as they speak of this honoree’s sense of humor and his readiness to help, all of these students also emphasize the rigor, intellectual depth, and range of his courses, which span the classical world with titles like “The History of Secrecy,” “Monstrous Visions: Ghosts, Dreams and Prophecy in Ancient Greece,” and “The Religion of Socrates.” Students who take these courses clearly become hooked on the Classics which, under this honoree’s mentorship, has become the intellectual heart of the campus. Not only does he, as part of his regular overload, team teach exciting inter-disciplinary courses with his colleagues, but he has himself enrolled in courses like Arabic and Hebrew. And many of his colleagues, including his department chair and even his dean, have enrolled in his courses themselves! What better compliment can colleagues make!

This honoree has directed summer research projects with individual students nearly every one of the eight summers he has taught at his small college on topics as far-ranging as “Euripides and Racine,” literary depictions of prostitution in the Greco-Roman world, dreams and healing in the cult of Asclepius, and madness and emperors in the Roman Empire. A number of these research projects have evolved into senior theses and some of these students have pursued teaching and graduate careers because of this honoree’s demanding but nurturing mentorship. His help does not stop at commencement. Students even speak of his eagerness to help them, long distance, through their graduate school translations and assignments.

In the words of one of his students, “his love of Classics and his ability to convey that tradition resonate deeply with many of his students. His love of learning, knowledge, and sharing touches everyone in his path. He inspires students to understand the intersection of languages, civilizations, and cultures. This is an incalculable lesson in any time, but especially poignant in our own.” For these reasons, we now celebrate the outstanding teaching of Dr. Eric Casey of Sweet Briar College.

Mary English came to Montclair State University in New Jersey in 2000, with a fresh PhD from Boston University and two years of teaching on visiting appointments. Hers was not the protected beginning which we try to accord to those new on the tenure track, with a chance to adjust to a new group of students and focus on one’s research. She was made coordinator of classical languages and charged with building up enrollments. She succeeded admirably. Under her guidance and with her teaching, Latin grew from three sections a year (both semesters) to nine; advanced courses went from being independent studies for one or two students to being regular seminars with ten or fifteen; total enrollments in Latin grew to over 200; Classics majors increased from four to sixteen.

Mary teaches a full range of courses, not only in both languages but in Classical Civilization and General Humanities as well: advanced courses on such topics as the Trojan War, Greek Tragedy, and Ancient Comedy; theatre history ranging from Greece to contemporary; and The American Playwright as Social Critic. She has been particularly active in the university’s honors program, teaching a freshman honors course called Great Books and Ideas nearly every year and offering advanced honors courses as well. In fact, she stepped in as acting director of the program in her second year, advising over two hundred students and recruiting more faculty to teach honors courses. She was also put in charge of the teacher certification program in Latin, offering courses on Methods of Teaching Latin and going into schools to observe student teachers in action. In between class preparations, she serves as editor of Classical Outlook, a post she has held since 2003.

English runs most of her classes as discussions. As one of her students puts it, “She regards herself as a group leader, whose task is to stimulate discussion and contribute pertinent information.” She keeps students actively involved, asking their opinions: no one gets to hide in her classes. She is encouraging, affirming students when they are on the right track, even if they come up with the wrong answer. One student speaks of her “approachable teaching style and genuine enjoyment of the material.” These are qualities that win converts, students who take her classes and change majors, add minors, or take up careers in teaching Latin in the schools. We heard from one student who was enrolled in her course on Great Books and Ideas through a clerical error, went to the first class to be a good sport about it, loved it and stayed, went on to complete a Classics minor, and gave a convocation address on “Philoctetes in College and Life.”

Above all, English gives her time and attention unstintingly to her students. She is in her office from six in the morning until eight or nine at night, and she actively encourages students to come and see her, whether they need help on a course or simply want to talk. The standard teaching load at Montclair State is four-four, yet she repeatedly takes on extras: tutoring a high school student to a score of five on his AP exam, a student who needed a few more hours of Latin to complete a double major, a high school teacher who wanted to add Latin certification to his credentials—and who now teaches six sections of Latin in his school. One of her students says, “I have rarely seen professors give so much of their time to help and nurture their students.”

The word “nurture” is important here. Mary English does not simply provide technical services, she spurs and inspires. Students describe her as “one of the strongest influences in encouraging me to do my best as a student” and as “the most influential person in my college career.” Most important, she helps her students see Classical learning as a possession for a lifetime, not simply a bunch of credits on one’s transcript. We heard from students of hers who went on to study law, public health, cinema studies, and clinical psychology. They all paid tribute to her help in preparing them for their life’s work and helping them achieve their goals.

So the rookie faculty member put at the helm of Classical Languages went on to become a formidable program builder, a major influence in the lives of many students, and a practitioner of classical humanities in its broadest sense. And by the way, she got tenure. So let’s join in honoring Mary English.

All college professors know that they will be judged by their peers in three major areas: teaching, research, and service. Most of us focus on one of these areas primarily, usually teaching or research, and we look forward to leave, or sabbatical, to focus on whatever we have been forced to neglect or place on the back-burner. But Joseph J. Walsh has found a way to interweave these three elements into one inseparable bond, and he has used it over the years to bind, drag, rescue, and lift up his students. Although we honor him today as a teacher, it is impossible to isolate his teaching from his entire teaching and humanistic life. His career illustrates excellence in every sense of the word.

Joe joined the faculty at Loyola College in Maryland as an instructor in fall of 1987. By 1992 he was chair of the Classics Department, and he was immediately faced with the challenge of keeping his department vital, funded, and populated during a time of transition. He did exactly this, not only revamping the Classical Civilization major, but also making connections with the honors program and the Loyola “Alpha” program, designed to thrust freshman directly into challenging seminars with top-notch teachers. It is tempting to make reference here to his work in Roman history as providing a foundation for successful expansion, but it would be simplistic and frankly, inadequate. Joe not only found ways to support, strengthen, and expand his program, but he did so in ways that rendered a sum greater than its parts. It is no surprise that he ultimately served as co-director of the Loyola Honors Program and Humanities Symposium, as well as coordinator of the Newman Scholar’s program, and co-director of the Year in Leuven program. That last is particularly significant because Joe extended the program through a summer term so that engineering students, normally locked in a rigorous set of classes, would be able to take advantage of this opportunity to study abroad. Joe’s commitment to learning clearly goes far beyond transmission of the classical experience.

Letters of support from students, colleagues, and administrators at Loyola make it clear that Joe spares none of his own energy or time. He leads tours of students to museums in New York; he hosts “bring your own text” Christmas parties in his home. He has taught thirty-three different classes at Loyola, fourteen over the last five years. But many faculty do these things, and more would like to. The outstanding, amazing, and legacy-making project that sets Joe Walsh apart and makes us call him and his teaching “excellent” is called What Would You Die For?

WWYDF? is a translation of the ancient text of Perpetua’s Passion. Joe edited the text and wrote an introduction, but the translation was done by his students. This kind of project can be overwhelming. Effective and accurate translation alone is a huge undertaking, and working with students on such a thing means endless encouraging, scolding, correcting, consoling, revision, and just plain labor. It takes a very special teacher to be able to conceive of, organize, and then remain in the background of such a project. The text alone would be a triumph, but the way it came about, and what it subsequently engendered is truly staggering.

The Center for the Humanities at Loyola features a specific text for its annual symposium. When Perpetua’s Passion was proposed in spring 2005 as the next year’s text, Joe proposed a new student translation for use as that text. When this was approved, he contacted students over the summer, secured their involvement, set them on a reading list, and had translation drafts complete by the end of fall term. This text was published by Loyola’s in-house student publishing organization, Apprentice House, located in their Communications Department. This achievement is tremendous, but what follows is truly visionary. Joe persuaded the Center for Humanities to designate WWYDF? the inaugural volume of a new series to be called Aperio: Loyola Humane Texts. Another project is now in the works, in which philosophy faculty and students will produce a new translation of a play by the Jesuit philosopher Pontanus. Martha Taylor’s letter of nomination sums up:

“Joe’s ultimate goal is for all Classics majors to participate in an Aperio project during their time with us. Apprentice House is the only student-run undergraduate press in the United States, and I dare say that Loyola’s Classics department is the only undergraduate program in the country that hopes to graduate all our majors as published authors.”

This is a monumental achievement, and a great legacy. Joe’s impact as a teacher reaches far beyond any one class, or major, or department, or even class year. A support letter mentions that on the way to his initial job interview at Loyola, Joe was involved in an awful train wreck, arriving “late, bruised from the horrific accident, in borrowed clothing”. He carried on with his presentation, was hired immediately, and began to make a difference from the first day. His students all talk about his rigor, accessibility, broad learning, and deep caring. While they contemplate what they would die for, at the same time the teaching career of Joseph J. Walsh makes it absolutely clear what he lives for and stands for. He is the epitome of an excellent teacher, and his contributions to education at Loyola will last for years and years to come.