|
Why did you choose Shimer as a place to teach?
Before coming to Shimer, I worked as a Senior Research Scientist and President of the Technical Advisory Board of a major US biomedical company. I had previously taught and done research at a couple of different schools where I was not happy. I wanted to do concrete things—not engage in intellectual jousting—and jokingly described myself as a ‘recovering academic’. Working for the corporation, I was not only publishing papers, I was publishing patents.
So why come back to academia? Why teach at Shimer?
One reason was the challenge. It is hard to teach here: you need to give up the arbitrary control that most teachers impose on their classes. In other Universities, I only had to prepare my lecture notes, present them, and walk out. Here, our students have questions and I sit around the table with them. I cannot anticipate the questions yet need to be ready to help the students find answers, as well as lead them to the lessons that I think important and would have lectured on elsewhere. Intellectual jousting or posturing is not enough to impress Shimer students: either produce or get out!
A more significant reason for choosing Shimer was the intellectual depth and honesty that I experienced when visiting and observing Shimer. The authentic seeking for answers, for knowledge, for truth, and the willingness to abandon pretension in the search is growing less common in higher education (among faculty as well as students) and when I breathed the refreshing atmosphere of a Shimer classroom, I realized that I had found a school where I could teach and learn and still stay ‘in recovery.’ The level-headedness of Shimer faculty is higher than any other group of college academics I’ve ever worked with. I only slightly exaggerate to end this story by saying I’ve lived happily ever after.
What do you like most about teaching at Shimer?
There is surprisingly little distance and distinction between faculty and students. All of us are co-learners. The only difference is that I’ve been at it longer. It fosters true scholarship so that Shimer undergraduates interact with faculty in a way that most students don’t experience until graduate school. It gives me more opportunity to really teach and to form students.
A second reason is the satisfaction and growth I feel personally. Though I have more experience in my field (physical and biological sciences) than my students, they still have much to teach me, often simply by the profundity of their questions. I’m learning at a faster pace here than I did as a student in graduate school. What is your favorite Shimer memory?
Having a student point out in class that Einstein’s model of the universe--finite, spherical, and unbounded--was the same that Aristotle had derived from first principles. I realized that Aristotle had much still to teach us: he simply lacked modern data and mathematical methods. I have since found many more insights in Aristotle that anticipate Quantum Field Theory, and am looking for insights to guide future research. Can Shimer students do well in the "real world"?
Very. Besides the obvious careers for our alums, such as teaching and law, medicine and computers are the most common careers for our graduates.
It is especially interesting that computers became a major career, and I was puzzled by this fact until one of our computer-oriented graduates explained it to me. During the two computer revolutions (the 1960’s for mainframes and the 1980’s for PC’s,) very few people were prepared for a career in the area: how can a student be trained by their college to do a job that does not yet exist? Shimerians, however, spend four years learning how to teach themselves new things and not depend upon others. When these new fields opened up with no one to fill them, Shimer grads stepped in and did it on their own.
With the high flexibility and mental agility I’ve found among Shimer alums, this explanation seems compelling. What will be the revolution of the 2010’s? I don’t know. But I do know that it will catch everyone off guard except the Shimer alums who will fill the unforeseen jobs created by that revolution.
For more on this topic, see Peter Schroth’s address to Shimer graduates of 2000. He uses his own highly successful career to illustrate the advantages of the breadth and flexibility of a Shimer education.
 | Jim Ulrich
Adjunct Professor of
Natural Sciences | |
Why did you choose Shimer as a place to teach?
After sitting in on a few science classes held for teachers over a summer, I was asked by Jim Donovan if I would be interested in teaching a chemistry class. I always enjoyed chemistry and when I found out that instead of using a standard text book I could use a book by Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, I was thrilled. What really blew me away was that some of the students were able to understand the detail in that book. For me, Shimer has enabled me to go back and really learn some of the things I thought I learned a while ago and to broaden my knowledge.
What do you like most about teaching at Shimer?
I get a lot of enjoyment out of developing new courses then reading my faculty evaluations at the end of them. Because we read original sources, the authors are the ultimate teachers and my job is like that of an orchestra conductor who spends the majority of their time bringing a large collection of talent together into a cohesive concert. When all the readings flow well and the discussions are lively, all I need to do during class is help guide the performance.
What is your favorite Shimer memory?
My first faculty meeting still sticks in my memory. Most meetings I had while working in industry focused on figuring out how to squeeze more efficiency into an already efficient process. Here, the focus is on people and figuring out how to make things better in order to benefit the students and the school. Can Shimer students do well in the "real world"?
If you mean do well financially, almost anybody can do well in this country with enough perseverance. If our students stop with a bachelor’s degree, the critical thinking, writing, and communication skills they get at Shimer are the types of skills needed in many professions. Of course, the research and thesis writing skills they build here are directly applicable for those that go on to graduate school. Many Shimer students tend to place a high value on aspects of life such as helping others, protecting the environment, and community involvement. For them, the ultimate reward is doing well by doing good.  | Stuart Patterson
Assistant Professor of
Liberal Arts | |
Why did you choose Shimer as a place to teach?
I think I'm fated to be a generalist. In graduate school, I couldn't keep to courses in one department, which caused me some grief with my home department advisors. My scholarly work is in history and cultural studies, which is already broad enough to fit almost anything into as an object of study. So, when the chance to work at Shimer came up, I leapt, wanting to return to great books seminar-style, having done my undergrad degree at St. John's College in Santa Fe. But at Shimer I could do the generalist thing, and still pursue some intensive research and teaching in more specialized fields, which I think is a great balance for instructors and students both.
What do you like most about teaching at Shimer?
Beyond the pure intellectual stimulation of our core program and the chance to do electives on almost anything under the sun, I like the size of the classes, and the camaraderie of the school as a whole. Instructors get a lot more contact with the students - and other staff and faculty as well - than any other school I've been involved with. The program lets us settle into fluid, spontaneous intellectual and personal relationships without the harried, scattershot kind of contact that reigns at other schools. And I have to say, the guff I get from students sometimes in and outside of class keeps me on my toes. The mix of informality with serious thinking stimulates me.
What is your favorite Shimer memory?
I'll pick one of many: the day a few weeks into my first semester that I finally got my office set up, after many failed attempts, as a light-tight camera obscura to do a lab for my Natural Sciences 3 class on light. I sent my office mate out into the quad to appear in front of the pinhole we'd arranged in one of our windows. Moments later, there was the projected image of him on my office wall, life-size and upside down, doing jumping jacks outside in the snow. Upside down students walked past him (leaping in a frenzy) as though nothing unusual was going on. We had a lot of fun standing around in my dark office that semester.
Can Shimer students do well in the "real world"?
Clearly, this question is begging a "what's real?" Shimer-type response. OK: Shimer students are prepared for almost anything, I think, except maybe hard physical labor (and even there it's a toss up). They also might find it hard to leave the rarified setting of the school. But intellectually and personally, they leave able to think on their feet (or seat), conversant with an impressive range of materials and subjects, and able to put their thoughts into the kind of good writing and conversation that is scarce in the professional class in my experience. Anyone with any sense looking at the kind of education a Shimer student gets would grab them for graduate work or a job.
| |
|
