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<\/p>\nGive someone an award, and listen to them speak.<\/p>\n
Last winter, after Professor of Political Science William Corlett won the College\u2019s Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, he visited with me to discuss it. As a tape rolled, Corlett began, in proper academic fashion, by tackling the award\u2019s definition.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Professor of Political Science William Corlett in his “The Household and Political Theory” classroom. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen<\/strong><\/p>\n For one, he\u2019d rather not refer to it as a best-teacher award. That admonition has less to do with ingrained Bates modesty \u2014 Corlett has been on the faculty since 1981 \u2014 and more with politics. Corlett\u2019s are far left, a spot on the spectrum easily guessed at by reviewing his course titles, such as \u201c<\/strong>Reading Marx, Rethinking Marxisms.\u201d<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the aversion to being labeled Bates\u2019 best? \u201cI have a critique of meritocracy,\u201d he explains. You see, meritocracy \u2014 advancement by ability or achievement \u2014 presupposes social agreement of what and who have the merit. Problem is, the power elite get to define merit, says Corlett, and probably also get to ignore sticky issues of race, class, sexuality, and gender. \u201cThe myth of merit presumes that we share a common ground,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich neatly sidesteps the need for cross-cultural negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n So there. With Corlett, the gentle introduction –of political belief in the first sentence of an interview \u2014 and soft-spoken, too, the words wisping from the tape playback \u2014 matches well with how he teaches political theory. He reveals where he stands.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t believe in being politically neutral in the classroom,\u201d he says, a reference to the spate of recent criticisms, led by David Horowitz, that American college professors at best oppress conservative voices in the classroom, at worse punish students for holding right-wing views.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who call for neutrality [in the classroom] are actually calling for a time-out from critical thinking,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you go into any classroom that I know of, you find so much complexity as students try to unpack their own arguments. And they want<\/em> you to unpack yours. So I teach my students to be critical, never cynical, and to get into the complexity of their own political arguments,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Corlett in the classroom is not an edutainer, a word that alludes to a 1999 essay by Cornell\u2019s Glenn Altschuler, who observed that \u201ctoo many students now choose the pleasurable over the valuable\u201d in how they evaluate professors. Instead, Corlett adopts a \u201chumble\u201d demeanor, says Katherine Batchelder \u201905, now an academic adviser for Denmark\u2019s International Studies Program. \u201cHe fosters community rather than competitive fratricide.\u201d<\/p>\n Corlett\u2019s skill at ennobling his students \u2014 he calls it \u201cbuilding a classroom community marked by mutual support and defense\u201d \u2014 captivated the Kroepsch selection committee, said member Denis Sweet, professor of German. \u201cHe treats his students as scholars,\u201d Sweet says. \u201cRather than passive receptors, students were to consider themselves equal to the great minds of Western civilization. This brought out their best.\u201d<\/p>\n High ideals in place, Corlett\u2019s classroom becomes the right room for political argument (yes, he sometimes quotes the Monty Python line), where he avoids \u201cplaying to the chilling effect of conservatism or political correctness or whatever term people are using at the time. I let students know what my own argument is, why I hold the views that I have, why I have changed my mind, and why I haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many of his fellow Baby Boomers, Corlett changed his mind during the Vietnam War years. He grew up in Pennsylvania, was student government president at Cedar Cliff High School, Class of \u201968, pledged a fraternity at Allegheny College, and interned with conservative Republican senator Hugh Scott Jr. \u201cThat was a very uncritical time in my political life,\u201d Corlett says. \u201cIn my conservative views, I was simply imitating my father.\u201d<\/p>\n Then came 1970 and Nixon\u2019s invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings. Corlett discovered political theory and began experimenting with language. \u201cThe combination produced a commitment to anarchism in my senior year, on which I wrote my thesis,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s my experience of moving from uncritical to critical.\u201d Corlett earned his master\u2019s and Ph.D. at Pittsburgh, and has\u00a0published Community without Unity: A Politics of Derridian Extravagance<\/em> (Duke University Press, 1989, 1993) and Class Action: Reading Labor, Theory, and Value<\/em> (Cornell University Press, 1998).<\/p>\n His intellectual awakening complete, Corlett rejected his father\u2019s politics and renounced his values. Well, not really. Becoming critically aware isn\u2019t so tidy. \u201cMy father voted for Nixon twice, and remains a rather conservative person. We still have very interesting political and religious conversations,\u201d says Corlett. Now 84, the elder William Corlett is a retired forester for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry. \u201cHe also served on the town council, was very committed to shade-tree initiatives and urban forestry, and is one of the most generous people I know.\u201d<\/p>\n A few years ago, campus libertarian Whitman Holt \u201902 broached a paper topic for Corlett\u2019s course \u201cContemporary Liberalism and Democratic Action.\u201d \u201cWhitman was interested in the idea of conservative people being at least as generous in their personal lives as people who have liberal politics. And I thought of my father \u2014 he tithes, he gives blood, and he is very active in his church and lodge and community. I have sometimes wondered if I\u2019m more progressive, in my mind, politically, and less generous with my personal life than my own father.\u201d<\/p>\n Holt\u2019s paper ultimately described a society in which a libertarian sense of \u201csupererogatory duty\u201d would yield enough private charitable support for society\u2019s less fortunate. \u201cAlthough Bill and I hold very different beliefs, he encouraged me to fully develop and articulate my position,\u201d says Holt, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate who earned his J.D. from Harvard and is now an attorney with the Los Angeles firm Stutman, Treister & Glatt. \u201cThe focus was on developing my analytic abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n So, if we\u2019ve now defined good teaching in the words of his students, and defined critical thinking through Corlett\u2019s own story, how does Corlett himself ultimately define the award?<\/p>\n \u201cI like to think of it as a gift,\u201d he says. \u201cTeaching is always about community-building, and I think effective community building teaches both students and teachers about gift-giving and generosity of spirit. I always enjoy the students and enjoy giving extra time to them. But I am only now becoming comfortable with the idea that they have passed a gift back to me. The spirit of this award, I think, is about teachers receiving gifts back from their students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Give someone an award, and listen to them speak. 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