Teacher's Day Memories: "I'd Still be in High School Somewhere"

When I first met professor Dalecki, I was in sheer awe. He walked in the class in formal business attire like he was all geared up for a conference. He greeted everyone with a loud and clear “Good morning” like Jon Stewart from the Daily Show. Then he started introducing himself and told everyone his name is Jacek, a typical polish name that no one knows how to pronounce. He shared his frustration with the class and said: “People have already invented more than ten bizarre ways of calling my name in the past decade, and most Americans prefer to call me Jay-cek, but it is really ya-cek.”

From that moment, I knew there was something about him that made him stand out among all the professors I’d known before. I was only a freshman and hadn't yet nailed down a major, but I somehow was intrigued by the specific subject he was teaching titled American Political Controversies. I never had a profound interest in political science before that moment, but I couldn’t get the subject out of my head after that class. I picked up political science as my minor.

Having done my schooling up to this point in China, this was one of the first experiences I'd had with the education system of another country, and I was almost taken aback. On this Teacher's Day, I'd like to share a little bit about why Professor Dalecki has stuck with me for so long. If any teachers are reading, perhaps you can take inspiration, but more importantly, perhaps you'll take comfort that your students will someday think the same of you. Or maybe they already do.

If you ask me what makes professor Dalecki so great, I will tell you he is probably one of the most creative teachers I’ve ever met. He doesn’t just teach. It amazes me to see how he always used and simple but straightforward images to help explain arcane and boring political concepts. For example, once he was trying to explain the concept of gerrymandering, a questionable practice that parties to win more seats in the legislature by manipulating boundaries in their own favor. As an outsider to the American political system, I was totally confused.

But he cleared my doubts with a paper I’ve still kept till this day. On this sheet, he let us draw the congressional map to ensure dogs and cats both win a certain number of seats, allowing us to understand how the number of votes can be changed by drawing the lines differently.

Professor Dalecki never believed in exams. He understood the huge workload that students have and never intends to make the exam questions hard for us to memorize. I once told him that I almost felt like the hell gates just opened for me if I got a C. But he laughed and said, “if it were not for my loving girlfriend giving me the exam questions, I can tell you I’d still be in high school somewhere in Warsaw.”

He wanted to encourage us to think deeply, and make connections with what’s happening around us. Once he wanted to explain the concept of deterrent to us. So, he asked us to give him a show of hands of how many of us were spanked by our parents before, saying this is one simple example of how parents try to deter children from undesirable behaviors. (But by no means did that mean he actually supported this method of discnipline. “I would not punish my kid for saying the word f*ck. Why? Because I am a firm believer that every kid should be watching South Park.")

What impressed me most was the extent he would go to avoid bias in the classroom. He could turn an entire class into a battleground where everybody gets excited for a heated debate while staying objective as a mediator who refused to impose his own opinions on any side.

I visited him during his office hours once after class, eager to find out what his stances are on some of the issues we’ve covered in the class so I asked, “In China, people really aren’t that serious with when it is okay for teenagers to drink. What do you think the minimum drinking age in America being set at 21? Yay or Nay?”

“I’m not supposed to answer that question,” he said.

“But why? You don’t seem to take any side at all during the class and I’m just curious to hear some inkling of how you really feel！”

“I choose not to share it because I certainly don’t want them to cloud your own judgments about how you think about certain things.”

At that moment, I finally understand how much effort it really took for Dalecki to let us do our thinking on our own. His incredible mindset still has a huge influence on me till this day. So let it be known that I will end this article with his quote: “It is at this stage in the class that I must ask myself, ‘Did I lie to you?’”

READ: Get Schooled on the History of Teacher's Day in China

Images: UNSPLASH, Irene Li