Classrooms

I went back to college yesterday.  Just for one day.  But sitting in libraries and lecture halls brought back lots of memories.

University of California at BerkeleyIt was “Cal Day,” an annual sort of open house at the University of California at Berkeley, where each department offers new students, parents, kids, community folks, and anyone who wanders by a chance to experience university life – thousands of people roam the campus all day.  It’s a huge meet up.

We stumbled upon it some years ago.  My husband really likes to go to the events put on by the music department – earnest and incredibly accomplished students in a Baroque ensemble or playing piano concerts. 

I am more curious about the teachers than the students.  That might be because I’ve done some teaching myself, some of it well and some not so well.  What are college professors like these days?  If they are presenting one lecture as a way to highlight their department, what will it be?

Howison Philosophy Library Moses HallI decided first to go to a Philosophy class.  It was in the Howison Philosophy Library in Moses Hall.  It felt like Hogwarts.  The rich old wood paneling, big oak tables, wrought iron balconies from the stacks filled with dusty tomes, and the dark oil painting of some old guy philosopher over the fireplace (Hume? Kant? Mr. Howison the benefactor?) So odd to be in the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, in 2016, and to keep looking around for Dumbledore.

Delightfully the professor was a Scot, actually more in the style and body type of Hagrid than Snape, and charmingly witty and wise on the subject of  “The Limits of Scientific Explanation."   Science, he said, can explain us cell by cell, but can never understand our inner life, which he reassured us is the most important thing about us. But then, having described convincingly the limits of science, he presented what he called science’s revenge.  When research subjects reported they had made a decision at a specific time, that time was actually 8 seconds after their brains had already acted chemically to lead them to make that choice.  So much for free will, he said.

Like any philosopher worth his or her salt, he gave us no definitive answers, but got us thinking, and he led a good discussion with the curious and hopeful students considering a Philosophy major.  After the class I said to another older woman - we were both looking for the bathroom (did philosophers have women’s rooms, we wondered – yes, another Hogwarts-style room) that I wasn't sure if I was reassured or troubled by his presentation, and we agreed he had done a good job if we were still talking about it in the loo.

The next class I went to was  “Positive Thinking for Cranks and Pessimists.”   I chose this because I was feeling a little abstract after the Philosophy class.  Do universities also offer some practical life skills?

Sibley Lecture Hall Bechtel Engineering BuildingIt took place in the huge modern Sibley Lecture Hall in the Bechtel Engineering Building.  Padded theater style seats, no blackboard, just a massive screen. I could imagine generations of engineering students studying there and going on to make millions. 

The young self described misanthrope prof from the “Greater Good Science Center” presented all kinds of statistics and graphs about how happy people live longer, make more money and have better sex lives than grumpy people, and he offered some simple ways to be happier (practice mindfulness, say thank you.) 

He was funny and charming.  But the students were completely non-responsive, just sat there in the dark.  That’s a weird feature of the Power Point style of education – staring at screens in the dark.

The last class I went to was in an old-fashioned steep lecture hall, aptly named Lecture Hall 1, in Le Conte Hall.  Here were the chairs with the little desks that come around from the right, and a huge blackboard and a small sense of claustrophobia – not quite enough exits.  If the Philosophy Library was like Hogwarts, this was like the lecture hall in The Paper Chase.  The topic was “The 2016 Presidential Election” and it was standing room only, 300+ folks.  Three youngish white guy Political Science profs (come on Cal, where’s your diversity?) showed us more graphs and charts.  Favorability of candidates: in all the years of polling never have we had two leading candidates in each party with such low favorability ratings.  The role of the state of the economy at the time of the election in determining outcome: if the housing bubble had burst one year later we would be enduring President McCain.  How mid term elections are really more important than presidential ones.  Smart guys expounding on mostly the obvious.  Sweetest moment was when a young woman asked, “This will be the first time I get to vote.  Many of my friends are saying they won’t vote, what’s the point?  What can I say to them?”  All three  professors, who had been pretty dispassionate up to that point, taking the long view, giving us data and more data, said, with one voice, “Supreme Court.”

My day back at school taught me a few things. 

-I am still sort of an old fashioned girl and I liked the Hogwarts Library the best.  A classrooms space does affect how learning happens.  The conversations there, and even in the steep lecture hall were much better and more engaged than in the sleek modern dark tech hall. 

-The profs I heard were all white guys.  Among the prospective students whites were in a distinct minority.

-Best educational moment: the unscheduled political protest at noon, where current students of color locked arms and blocked access at Sproul Plaza (site of the Free Speech protests 50 years ago), chanting “Whose university? Our university!”  I was impressed that the thousands of hungry blocked students and families didn’t get angry, but stayed calm, and figured out a way to get around, went on the next activity. 

Or was it sad that we just said,” Oh, Berkeley, protest, where can I get a burger?”

Copyright © 2016 Deborah Streeter