“Dilys, now what?”
I think I should not have signed up Dan’s World History. I know saying this now sounds stupid, and late, too, after so many kindhearted friends admonished me what was going to happen.

I gather one of the reasons is that I was still immersed in the memory of his Writing class year ago. That was a good one I should say. New ideas and info, you could let yourself wandering in what he brought up and drawled on and on with. I remember there was once he mentioned the formation of word, those roots, prefixes and suffixes. He explained for some time the word I gave him which was over twenty letters. It was interesting, and I got a clear idea what my next year’s medical terminology class was going to be like. I enjoyed the class. The lectures on western religion, Martin Luther’s reform of Christianity, on Christopher’s discovery of America, on Buddhism to which his belief shifted from Christianity were light kindling my interest in his class. Responding to him was a great fun and I like it. He was like talking to you and led your mind slowly through a logical path.

Another reason, I guess, may be his knowledge and way of thinking. If you take a look at the books he took to class (usually a dozen of them), maybe open it and give a glimpse at the margin and the lines, you would know why I say this. You can never find one page in one book without florescent marks and ball pen reflections. He is a real reader. During his talking in class, there were always citations and reference and his own notions, those famous writers he mentioned were really some great minds. This wise old American was, to me, like a book giving you bottomless insights. Conversations with him depicted his knowledge in the field of literature and movie. Once I asked his idea about Catch-22, the Joseph Heller book, he was like talking about 5 minutes without me inserting at least an agreeing word. He talked from the book about Heller’s outstanding idea to the movie based on it and then the American movies as a whole. He seems to know every movie made in American history. Though I know well enough he was a big big talker, which makes other Chinese teachers working with him shun away from starting a conversation with him, I’m confident at the same time how much I can get from him, he was never parsimonious about what he knows.

I learnt from him that:
Never trust textbooks though you are learning from it.
Always remembering asking questions instead of hiding or ignoring them even if you think they are stupid.
A fine paper should be polished again and again instead of one draft and then done.
A good paper should be concise and efficient at the same time, like a mini-skirt.
Speak after thinking clear enough. (There is a student in the class who never thinks before open his mouth. Urr…)
……

However, I should have known if he were “a big fan of history” what happens next. I know nothing of it and I signed up his two-credit class of World History for my last one credit needed. Really I have been overwhelmed with my own enthusiasm. I thought, “according to what he knows, it is doubtless how much I could learn from it.” After the second class was over on Thursday night, as if a lightening has stroke my head, I found out the minute I walked out of the classroom, that he is seeking the answers of his own history questions from US!!! A better diction may be “demanding”. A sixty year old man questioning where he is from, and puzzling over what seems exist a narrow chance of uncovering the exact truth. Is it exactly because he is a thinker?

“YOU-should-find-out, why-our-predecessors-actually-came-down-from-the-tree!”
“Why-we-don’t-possess-thick-furs-anymore?”
“……”

After we offered some guesses and materials we found, he was still annoyed at our groundless answers. It was no doubt he would be disappointed at us; how could we give him a satisfactory answer if the world famous historians cannot? In this case, I can imagine the situation of another favorite subject of him---Western Culture in the Movie about which he offers a course, too. He is a big fan. It’s reasonable he wants to make the class a seminar and most of the time should be the discussion of our own, in fact it is a favorable way of American teaching and I like it, but we are the ones who desire to learn, at least you could offer us some on your mind, or summarize our puzzles and we try to figure them out together. If I could read the book and find myriads of information, or discuss with my fellows to solve the puzzles that have come up during the reading, need I attend his class? I need him to outline the world history in the limited amount of time, to generalize a series of ideas based on the books he has read, and share them with us, with our findings and our ideas, as well. That’s why he is the teacher.
 
Maybe I was dreaming or maybe I fell back to the traditional Chinese teaching method again. Did I? Maybe what he can offer is only the books---The Human Web and A Global History From Prehistory to 21st Century. Who knows. Maybe what I figured year ago about his insights are actually others’.
I wish I could learn more myself.