U Magazine, Spring 1988

A glimpse at the teaching/ learning process

'51 teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."

T he real story of USO revolves a~o~nd teac_hi~g - t_he Univer– sity stop pnomy as 1t goes about its dai ly business. At USO, teaching is a highly personal transaction between one professor and one student when the process works at its best. When that happens, both individuals profit: the teacher because he succeeded in broadening his stu– dent's intellectual horizons; the student because he gained new insights into the world. The University employs faculty dedicated to making the teaching proc– ess work. Faculty teach here because they wane to make a noticeable differ– ence in the lives of individual students. But what does it mean to be commit– ted to teaching? What are the rewards? How does this highly personal process work? How are students affected? In this issue we continue to present answers to those questions. Answers that are provided by experts - USO professors and alumni.

Herbert Peterfretmd

"M

Herbert Peterfreund Distinguished Professor ofLaw Once, ma11yyears ago, when askedto name his hobbies, hereplied, "They are three: teaching, teachittga11dteachittg." That ambitio11 was cemetttedat the age of l5, when he was 11omi11atedto conduct a class one day at his small Pennsylvania high school. Andhe didn't strayfrom that dream as he completedundergraduate studies at Penn State andeamed two law degrees, first at Harvard, then at Columbia. In 1946, fresh from a distinguishedsti11t as a11 in/antry captain with the U. S. Anny in Europe duringWorldWar II, he won a teaching.fellowship at New York Univer– sity's Schooloflaw, a rich andfulfilling chapter i11 his life which continuedfor 32 years. Hejoi11edUSD's SchoolofLaw as a DistinguishedProfessor in 1978. He says no 011e has hada happierlife than him.

y teaching philosophy can be summed up by four factors which affect everything I do. One of them is tangible, the other three are intangible. "The tangible thing is preparation - solid preparation. I never go to class unprepared. I never have. And when I say preparation, I don't mean on ly substan– tive preparation, I mean preparation as to how best I should present particular material to the class. Before I go to any class, I ask myself, "How best can I present this? Should I do it by lecture? Should I do it by Socratic method? Should I do it by demonstration? Or by a combination of all three? "The intangibles are three. "One, enthusiasm. I love teaching. This is my 41 st year. I work by the old maxim , 'Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm.' If I'm enthusiastic, I don't see how the class can be unenthusiastic. 1\\ 1 0, sense of humor. Look, studying law is not the most interesting thing in

(These profiles originally werepublished aspart ofUSD's 1987 President's Report.)