Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Back in Class
So yesterday was the first day of class of my final semester of formal schooling. I have a relatively light class load this semester, and that suits me just fine. I have a third-year paper to write, and that will take up enough of the Thursdays and Fridays when I don't have any classes.
One thing that struck me is that this semester is the very first time in all my years of schooling that I have a class taught by the person who wrote the textbook. You'd think that here at Harvard, with all the luminary professors who are at the top of their field, this would have happened to me before my final semester. But it hasn't. Prof. Gerald Frug is one of the nation's leading authorities on local government law, so he's the author of the textbook we're using. Sadly, though, he informed us that he intends to revise the textbook for a new edition as we go throughout the semester, thus indicating that I won't be able to sell my book back at the end of the semester.
(Sidenote: I had Frug for contracts as a 1L; this is also the first time in law school I've repeated professors!)
Perhaps even cooler than having a professor who literally wrote the book, though, is what happened in my reading group class on Laws, Markets, Social Groups, and Religions. The professor is Bob Clark, who until last year was the Dean of HLS. He pointed out at the beginning of class that he hasn't taught a class for 15 years--he's been doing "other things, like raising money for things like this." Then he pointed to the wall of the room, where there was a plaque engraved, "THE ROBERT C. CLARK ROOM A Gift From His Classmates."
So you tell me which is cooler: Having a professor who wrote the textbook, or having a professor teach you in a room named after him?
One thing that struck me is that this semester is the very first time in all my years of schooling that I have a class taught by the person who wrote the textbook. You'd think that here at Harvard, with all the luminary professors who are at the top of their field, this would have happened to me before my final semester. But it hasn't. Prof. Gerald Frug is one of the nation's leading authorities on local government law, so he's the author of the textbook we're using. Sadly, though, he informed us that he intends to revise the textbook for a new edition as we go throughout the semester, thus indicating that I won't be able to sell my book back at the end of the semester.
(Sidenote: I had Frug for contracts as a 1L; this is also the first time in law school I've repeated professors!)
Perhaps even cooler than having a professor who literally wrote the book, though, is what happened in my reading group class on Laws, Markets, Social Groups, and Religions. The professor is Bob Clark, who until last year was the Dean of HLS. He pointed out at the beginning of class that he hasn't taught a class for 15 years--he's been doing "other things, like raising money for things like this." Then he pointed to the wall of the room, where there was a plaque engraved, "THE ROBERT C. CLARK ROOM A Gift From His Classmates."
So you tell me which is cooler: Having a professor who wrote the textbook, or having a professor teach you in a room named after him?
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