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Wednesday, October 04, 2006

The Globe is Wonderful...

...and full of many amazing things, including one Professor Hall at the University of Florida, who, for at least one class session, lost it. Times being what they are, he was filmed losing it.

He has now lost his job. Here's a description, from Inside Higher Ed, of what he does in the video (I haven't seen it):


A video of a lecture shows an obviously gleeful Hall, clad in a polo shirt and perched on the edge of stage, in front of a student audience. His musings seem thoughtful as he demystifies ancient texts by comparing them to modern ideas.

After reading a passage from the Code of Hammurabi, he proclaims, “This is a product liability … law, right?” There is a long pause as he searches for the word “law.” He recovers and then holds up Machiavelli’s The Prince, calling it “a 16th century, principle of management book.”

But when he reaches for Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, his poise leaves him. “Sun Tzu, this is how old? 2,000 years?” he asks.

A student from the audience offers up an answer. “Check the copyright.”

Rolling onto his back, Hall splays out over the stage and starts cackling.

He then sits up laughing. “Noooooooo. You can’t check the copyright because he didn’t copyright the damn thing!” he responds, taking a few more seconds to compose himself before losing himself in another laughing fit.

He then continues with his lecture. “And what Sun Tzu was saying was, ‘Here’s strategy,’ ” he says, nodding his head to draw agreement from the students. “Here’s how to compete.”

Within another minute, he has strayed off on another tangent, and begins advising a student he notices in the audience to go visit the Globe Theater. “Eh, I’m not a big Shakespeare fan, but the Globe is wonderful,” he says.



Couple of things. I saw my share of bizarre teaching as an undergrad and a graduate student, but it was always in a minor key: The professor was clearly depressed that day, or hung over or something. But I went to school in Chicago. In sunny Florida, bizarre teaching seems to take the form of extreme happiness.

More seriously, it matters whether this behavior was a one-shot deal, or whether this guy is a career hebephrenic. He seems to have won teaching awards, etc. Certainly take him out of the classroom for awhile; but if the behavior was atypical, give the guy another chance.