Reports To

Associate Dean, Academic Affairs

Teaching Philosophy

My philosophy of teaching is simply this: the more I learn, the more I learn what I don't know. Learning is a lifelong process, and I try to communicate the excitement behind this process to my students in any way possible. Although my discipline is English, I look for examples of this process in all sorts of ways, from the importance of standard speech to relating anecdotes from my own personal forays into the morass of living and learning. To me, learning is fun. It lets one in, so to speak, on the jokes of the world. I feel a sense of personal satisfaction in a movie theater when I am laughing at a scene obviously taken from something in literature, for example, and I have recognized it. Perhaps not too many others in the audience have had the same experience. Those who have are laughing along with me. Knowledge is fun. Knowledge is freedom, power. I pass these ideas on to my students in the hopes that they will rearrange their own attitudes toward learning and begin to feel somewhat the same satisfactions I have felt. Speaking and writing well are only the beginnings of an immense accomplishment. I invite students to accompany me on this journey toward achievement.