Kottman (I)

As a history instructor, I pushed students hard.  As a teacher, that was my job.  At the high school level, it was to get them to think critically and learn fundamental concepts and at the college level, it was to be able to put multiple concepts together and to think critically under pressure—things like the time pressure of a test period or putting a word limit on a paper, etc.

I wish more people understood history, had been taught critical thinking skills.

To that end, please consider going and checking out the Dietz Foundation.  We’re working on trying to create scholarships and opportunities to improve classroom teaching AND prepare a new generation of young people seeking to become teachers.

The guy who demanded that the most was a professor I had at Iowa State–Dr. Richard Kottman.  I loved him.  He was awesome.  Most people hated him.

Visceral hate–because he had the audacity to assign 20+ page papers in advanced classes, put short-answer and essay questions on exams in Intro classes and because he demanded a ton of reading–and he’d test on it, too.  Hate enough that someone took soap to the elevator doors to write out ‘Kottman is an asshole’ on them.

So since I was thinking of Dr. Kottman, I thought I’d share a few Kottman memories.  This is #1.

When I was a freshman, two friends (Dave and Jeff) and I decided we’d take senior-level history classes…because we were bad-asses.  Dave chose the American Revolution, I went with Europe 1815-1914, and Jeff took US-Soviet Relations 1919-1945.  Dave and I got ‘A’s.  Jeff had Kottman and got a ‘C’.  We had a lot of fun at Jeff’s expense and all he’d say is, “You’ll see.  I dare you.  You take him.”

So I did, second semester of sophomore year.  It was the same class.  I’ve rocked Russian History, Military History, and now I was going to do the same with this Kottman guy.  The classroom was full when an older guy (the age I am now actually…) walks in, goes to the podium and starts reading the attendance roster.  He says “This is the syllabus.”–hands it thru the rows, returns to the front.  No biggie and then…

“This is History 471.  My name is Kottman and most of you have been told I’m a sonuvabitch.  Good.  I am.”  And right there on the first day of class after that introduction he started lecturing, straight into the factors which led Wilson to propose the League of Nations.

I was good–I had a notebook (be prepared) and was able to start taking notes.  A lot of the poor people there were caught with nothing, figuring it was the first day so there’d be attendance, a syllabus, and that’s it.  Nope.

The entire semester was like that.  50 minutes of non-stop lecture or exams impossible to finish in 50 minutes–and that’s too bad because all you got was 50 minutes.  The highlights:

*Typing a 30-page paper over Spring Break (on a typewriter, so I frickin’ two-finger pecked that damned thing all of break) on the rationale for American recognition of Israel.

*Getting the grade back on the paper with a “B” and an illegible comment next to it (all of his comments were illegible to everyone but him)–I went and asked him…he said it said “Good, but you can do better” (about the best praise you’d get from him)

*He never used notes to teach.  He had the material *cold*.  One time he rattled off a quote, said it was in the US Foreign Relations series–said the book, chapter, page…I actually went and looked it up (because no one could have that stuff down that good).  He was wrong–>it was on the previous page/left hand side of it.  Jeebus that was impressive.

*I remember the first test and the first essay question.  I was in shock because he required 7 short answer questions and 2 essays–in 50 minutes.  That doesn’t sound impossible, right…except when you get a load of the *first* question:

“What do you think were the most important aspects of American foreign policy towards the Soviet Union during the Republican administrations of the 1920s?  Explain in terms of economics and politics, making sure to discuss the consequences of Versailles and American involvement in the Russian Civil War.  Note the domestic (if any) consequences of these policies and domestic opinion towards communism.”

—Five weeks in to a class with 1,000 pages of reading already complete.  My God, what did I get into….?

What I got was the ability to think quick, to write concisely (when I wanted), to think in-depth on subjects, to learn how to do research with primary sources.  I learned critical thinking–learned not to trust sources (did you know Truman tampered with his writings after he left the White House to make his Secretary of State look bad/incompetent?) without thorough examination/confirmation.

I got a ‘B’ in that class–by far the worst grade I ever received in a History class.  It’s also the grade I’m proudest of.  He may have been a sonuvabitch–but for me, he was MY sonuvabitch.