An Awesome Teaching Day

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen Feb 25, 2007

This past Friday, my 9:00 a.m. class was awesome. (No offense, 11:00 a.m. class. You're awesome too! ) It made me remember why I decided to become a professor and why teaching can be.... well, awesome.

We've been talking about the U.S. corporate media system, and a few days ago I presented arguments for and against our current market-driven media system. I showed a documentary called "Rich Media, Poor Democracy" that harshly criticizes corporate media. As a guiding question, I asked students whether or not they agreed that the corporate media was antidemocratic.

The room lit up with passionate and intelligent responses! One student launched into a fabulous declaration about how the media violates anti-trust laws. Another student declared quite eloquently that the media condition us not to question the powers-that-be. It was so wonderful to see students this engaged with the course material.

On days like this, I feel like I've given students a gift. I've encouraged them to think critically about their culture and exposed them to new ideas. And although I don't think I'm going to miss teaching all that much, days like this give me a feeling of satisfaction that some of the thousands of students in my classrooms left with some valuable information and insight.

Join me as I continue to blog about my last semester as a professor!