Check out our brand new Local Poker Communities! Get updates and interact with poker players in your area.
Visit the United States Poker Community | Visit the California Poker Community | Read more about the Launch of P5s Local

"I do not love young men, but I certainly have liked the hell out of them"

Reply to Thread
  1. Rocket Surgeon Rocket Surgeon is offline & brain scientist

    United States

    Posts: 12,012
    Joined: Apr 05

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 3:13pm)

    Catchy title, eh? (DAMN, all you Canadians have me saying eh, eh)

    Very cool story in our newspaper today. A professor gave his last lecture and talked a little bit about life, death, and people. It's kind of inspirational, so I thought I would share it with OT on this fine Friday afternoon...

    http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive...ull_house.aspx
    Cal Golumbic shook the hand of one last student and surveyed the packed lecture hall in front of him yesterday. He knew how to begin.

    "My name is Cal Golumbic," he said, even though nearly everyone in the room had taken a class with him at least once. It's a habit left over from his days as a lawyer, he said. "I'm a lawyer who decided to stop practicing and come back to Central Pennsylvania and teach."

    This is Golumbic's 13th year at Penn State. Yesterday, he gave his last lecture in PL SC 470W (Legal Brief Writing).

    "I decided to [teach] 13 years ago, and I decided to stay for a year or two, and I decided I liked it so much that 13 years have passed, and now I've decided to leave," he said.

    The room -- full of current, former and graduated students -- was almost entirely full.

    Some of them had driven for hours and hours to be there.

    "He's a professor unlike any other," said Andrew Gorman, Class of 2006. Gorman drove from Washington, D.C. to sit in on Golumbic's last class. "He's one of the only professors that teaches students how to live."

    Golumbic is 71 years old, a native of Lock Haven, and a former lawyer who once argued in front of the Supreme Court. His father never finished high school; his grandfather was illiterate. He became a lawyer to make money and a teacher because he wanted to, and he will return to practicing law after leaving Penn State.

    "I'm 71. I'm running out of life," he said with a smile. He has taught first-year seminars, political science courses and a philosophy course called The Meaning of Human Existence during his years at Penn State.

    This last class's focus, however, was something far more sobering than a legal brief.

    "What's the subject today? Dying and death," he said, pacing the floor as the room went silent.

    "But not in the way that you think ... Anything that you do in life that does not expand and offer you an opportunity to further define what you are, to open life in such a way that you can be as fully human as possible, can well be a form of dying."

    Golumbic stopped practicing law, he said, because he "needed to regain" his identity.

    "In my three piece suit ... I was becoming a corpse. There wasn't much about me that was lifelike. And so I came here," he said.

    Students describe his teaching style as unique and even intimidating. Golumbic calls students by their last names, makes them stand up when he calls on them, grills them until he gets the answer he wants.

    "It's discussion by cross-examination," said Bob Ruff (senior-English), grinning.

    Ashley Rosenthal, who has taken seven of Golumbic's classes, filmed the lecture for students who couldn't be there.

    "He was my first professor I ever had," Rosenthal (senior-political science) said. "He can be very mean to get his point across, but he really wants everyone to learn."

    Still, Golumbic said his first priority has always been his students. He eats lunch with them after class and keeps in touch with students who graduated years ago.

    "I have never had a young woman in my class that I did not love. And I do not love young men, but I certainly have liked the hell out of them," he said, laughing.

    Golumbic looked out on the crowd gathered before him and became, for a moment, not teacher, but student.

    "You never fail to learn from the associations of people you may be with, even if you're their instructor, lawyer, whatever," he said. "And I've learned an enormous amount of things from all of you. I've learned to like people again."
  2. Seykota Seykota is offline

    TX
    United States

    Posts: 8,385
    Joined: Jul 05

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 3:21pm) in reply to Rocket Surgeon

    Good story. I wonder if I would have liked his classes though.
  3. shipitdotcom shipitdotcom is offline

    La Jolla, CA
    United States

    Posts: 1,141
    Joined: Oct 06

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 3:50pm) in reply to Rocket Surgeon

    "He can be very mean to get his point across, but he really wants everyone to learn." -- This seems like an odd quote to me. Anywho, good article.
     
  4. digthatfunk digthatfunk is offline

    Indianapolis, IN
    United States

    Posts: 1,665
    Joined: Aug 06

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 4:20pm) in reply to shipitdotcom

    i think this may easily be one of the best quotes ive ever read/heard:

    "Anything that you do in life that does not expand and offer you an opportunity to further define what you are, to open life in such a way that you can be as fully human as possible, can well be a form of dying"
Reply to Thread