Mad Professor

When I try to remember anything said by any of my teachers at any stage of my formal education, only one statement comes to mind. A professor I had for an undergraduate philosophy course stated that he advocated controlled madness. The older I get the better I understand what he meant.

Word has gotten back to me that some students who have taken my courses are telling others that I am crazy. They don’t mean simply unusual. They mean CRAZY! They’re right! I find sanity confining. When people consider you sane, they expect the expected from you. When you are labeled crazy, you have far more freedom to experiment. In fact, when you are considered mad, people expect you to be unconventional. Since they don’t know what to expect from you, they are not surprised by the unexpected. This makes life a lot more fun. It also allows me to try different approaches to teaching. I am not confined in how I express myself. I cry and laugh. I am serious and playful. I learn and teach. I am foolish and wise. I can give expression to many facets of myself. Doing so creates the space for my students to do the same. Education is then truly holistic. I am grateful for the lesson shared in that class decades ago by a wise mad professor.