Hamilton College - Alumni Review - Spring 2008 - Teaching Moments and Lessons for Life

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Teaching Moments and Lessons for Life

Rooted in a strong liberal arts tradition, Hamilton's faculty ushers students into the future

By Helen S. Schwartz and Donald Challenger

EARLY IN HIS TEACHING CAREER, Austin Briggs was talking with a legendary older colleague, George Nesbitt '24, about how to be more effective in the classroom. "Open the windows and close the doors," Nesbitt told him. It turned out to be pretty good advice. Briggs, like Nesbitt before him, retired as the Hamilton B. Tompkins Professor of English and one of the College's most esteemed faculty members. Recently, as Briggs wrapped up a James Joyce seminar to conclude a half-century on the Hill, he mused about teaching, its importance to Hamilton's liberal arts tradition and the current state of the profession.

"Everyone keeps asking me what has changed in my 50 years here," he said. "I'm interested in what's changing, but I'm more fascinated by what hasn't changed."

Much the same could be said of the College and its current faculty. Interviews with dozens of professors, students, alumni and administrators reveal a keen appreciation for innovation and exploration in the open curriculum, a regard for diverse perspectives both at Hamilton and in off-campus programs, and a sense that the student-teacher relationship — still the heart of the matter, after all — may itself be changing in some ways, largely for the better.

But those interviews also reveal a bedrock belief in continuity, a conviction even among students and younger faculty members that teaching and learning at the Hamilton of the 21st century bear a remarkable resemblance to what has happened here for
generations. Students are drawn to intensive, collaborative learning in small classes and labs. Alumni look back with gratitude (and often the relief that follows a close call) on demanding lessons in writing, speaking and research. Professors value the collegiality and the interdisciplinary conversation — what Briggs calls "that sense of belonging to an intellectual community"— that continue to anchor teaching and scholarship on the Hill.

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Austin Briggs