Q & A with Keith Jones
By Patrick Hunter
Last Updated:4:22 PM EST 4/22/09 Section: News
Q: Have you ever learned something from your students?
A: Second time I taught this course, I had ten people sign up for it. I don't know what reason, but they were all women. Totally changes the dynamics of the class. First, it was smaller, and so they tended to be a little more chatty, it was more like a seminar. But they're all women, and I guess I didn't count.
They were very quick to start relating these texts and these documents to themselves. And it's funny because, at first, the University of Chicago in me said, 'Wait a second! This is not supposed to be some kind of personal, self-help class. You know, this is an academic subject.'
And then I realized, 'Wait a second. I've got it wrong. They're doing it the right way. I'm supposed to read these things and have a personal reaction to them. The Greeks did not write this stuff for scholars. They wrote this for people....These kids who are responding to what they're reading naively, but authentically, are actually more in tune with what the whole idea of this type of literature is than we are.' So they taught me a lesson in that way.
Q: What's the craziest or funniest thing that has ever happened in your classroom?
A: I once made a girl cry. This is when I was teaching high school in Texas. There's this girl in my class and she looked like some celebrity. I could not place it. And she had been like Miss Teen Texas or something like that the year before. I just kept looking and looking at her and I finally realized, and I said to her, 'You know who you look like? You look like Big Bird….' And all of the kids said, 'Oh my gosh! You do look like Big Bird!' The girl burst into tears and ran out of the room.
Q: What is the best part about your job?
A: It's simple, the fact that I get to talk about my favorite subject in the world on the clock. What I read, think about and discuss in my class is very similar to what I read, think and discuss with whoever I can corner anywhere else. It's not like I'm working on the railroad here.
A: Second time I taught this course, I had ten people sign up for it. I don't know what reason, but they were all women. Totally changes the dynamics of the class. First, it was smaller, and so they tended to be a little more chatty, it was more like a seminar. But they're all women, and I guess I didn't count.
They were very quick to start relating these texts and these documents to themselves. And it's funny because, at first, the University of Chicago in me said, 'Wait a second! This is not supposed to be some kind of personal, self-help class. You know, this is an academic subject.'
And then I realized, 'Wait a second. I've got it wrong. They're doing it the right way. I'm supposed to read these things and have a personal reaction to them. The Greeks did not write this stuff for scholars. They wrote this for people....These kids who are responding to what they're reading naively, but authentically, are actually more in tune with what the whole idea of this type of literature is than we are.' So they taught me a lesson in that way.
Q: What's the craziest or funniest thing that has ever happened in your classroom?
A: I once made a girl cry. This is when I was teaching high school in Texas. There's this girl in my class and she looked like some celebrity. I could not place it. And she had been like Miss Teen Texas or something like that the year before. I just kept looking and looking at her and I finally realized, and I said to her, 'You know who you look like? You look like Big Bird….' And all of the kids said, 'Oh my gosh! You do look like Big Bird!' The girl burst into tears and ran out of the room.
Q: What is the best part about your job?
A: It's simple, the fact that I get to talk about my favorite subject in the world on the clock. What I read, think about and discuss in my class is very similar to what I read, think and discuss with whoever I can corner anywhere else. It's not like I'm working on the railroad here.
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