Tue 3 Nov 2009
Gaudino Wikipedia Article
Posted by David under Robert Gaudino at 4:30 pm
I have been working on the Wikipedia article about Williams Professor Robert Gaudino. (Special thanks to Carrie Greene and Sylvia Kennick Brown at Williams for their help and permission to use a picture of Gaudino from the College’s collection.) Care to help me? I have provided links to some great primary sources but the information still needs to be incorporated in the article. Questions:
1) Gaudino’s former students still remember him fondly and think back on his teachings, even 30 years after his death. What current professors at Williams will cast as long a shadow?
2) Professor Kurt Tauber, my teacher in Political Economy 301, called Gaudino “arguably the the greatest Williams College educator of the 20th century.” If Gaudino does not deserve that description then who would?
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6 Responses to “Gaudino Wikipedia Article”
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ephling says:
James MacGregor Burns
David says:
Excellent suggestion! I was a sophomore in the last class that Burns taught at Williams. Memories of that class in Stetson will stay with me for the rest of my life.
But Burns, for all his many wonderful qualities, was not particularly focused on undergraduate education. He was much more a scholar than an “educator.” He had a much larger impact on the academic literature than Gaudino — indeed, perhaps a larger one than any other Williams professor of his era — but he did not have many/any particular unusual ideas about the process of education itself, which I think is the point that Tauber is trying to get at.
Henry Bass says:
I knew and much liked Gaudino when he first came to Williams. I was too far along to take a course from him. But, had many interesting conversations with him.
But, I would say that John William Miller of the Philosophy Dept. was the best teacher of that era. And has the largest following of students. And tho Miller published little when he was alive, many volumes have been guided into publication by his students, since his death so that he has a small following today.
Miller’s predecessor in the Phil Dept, James B. Pratt, also had quite a following.
Guy Creese '75 says:
I vote for Burns as well. I had Burns in a Leadership course and he was superb at the Socratic method and getting to the crux of the matter.
Of course, the good thing about Williams–given the embarrassment of great teachers–is that we could come up with a 10-way tie and we’d all be right.
I knew a number of students who had Gaudino and it’s fair to say he was a life-altering teacher. His value was he was an antidote to Williams. Williams was–and I’m sure still is–a bit of a hot house atmosphere, where if you weren’t careful you could lose yourself in debating how many angels there were on the head of a pin. Gaudino’s point was that knowledge was only half of the solution–you had to understand the real world and the environment people lived in as well. The value comes from the interaction with the real world and knowledge–that it’s important to live an examined life.
On top of that, Gaudino’s forcing students to confront gritty reality was a revelation to some. Living in Appalachia for a semester with a family that was just making ends meet was a big change from debating whether to drive this year’s BMW or last year’s Mercedes to the country club. Gaudino showed students that the world was a much bigger place than the protected enclave that they knew.
So while I would vote for Burns because I had him and didn’t have Gaudino, I could see where Gaudino would correctly garner a lot of votes.
Ronit says:
http://www.williams.edu/resources/gaudino/gaudinobio.php
http://www.williams.edu/resources/gaudino/gaudinoarchive.php
(I made that website a few years ago as a WIT intern… from scratch… can’t believe we didn’t use Wordpress or Drupal)
Probably some people you can contact here if you want to collect more info:
http://www.williams.edu/resources/gaudino/board.php
Some archival material here:
http://cdm.williams.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/gaudino
Jr. Mom says:
@Guy Creese ‘75:
I have heard Gaudino mentioned a fair amount here on EB, in particular, alongside the phrase “uncomfortable learning”. But your commentary gives me a much fuller understanding of who he was and what he stood for. Much appreciated.