[Gary Wassner]

I take that as a real compliment. Thanks.

Teaching can be so gratifying, although I suppose it depends sometimes on the circumstances. when I was working on my master's degree, I was a teaching assistant at the university. Two weeks before the first day of classes I was assigned my course. I remember very well being told that I was to teach Medical Ethics and they handed me a reading list. Most of the students were not philosophy students, but pre med and nursing students. I barely even knew what medical ethics was and I had not read a single book on the list! I had scant time to prepare, so I had to wing it. I faked it pretty well, but I felt terrible for the students who should have had the benefit of a teacher who was well versed in the subject before hand. My first day standing in the lecture hall with 45 or 50 freshman staring down on me was quite an experience. I spoke for 50 minutes, and honestly when it was over, I couldn't have told you a single word that I said.

[Larry]

I take that as a real compliment. Thanks.

Teaching can be so gratifying, although I suppose it depends sometimes on the circumstances. when I was working on my master's degree, I was a teaching assistant at the university. Two weeks before the first day of classes I was assigned my course. I remember very well being told that I was to teach Medical Ethics and they handed me a reading list. Most of the students were not philosophy students, but pre med and nursing students. I barely even knew what medical ethics was and I had not read a single book on the list! I had scant time to prepare, so I had to wing it. I faked it pretty well, but I felt terrible for the students who should have had the benefit of a teacher who was well versed in the subject before hand. My first day standing in the lecture hall with 45 or 50 freshman staring down on me was quite an experience. I spoke for 50 minutes, and honestly when it was over, I couldn't have told you a single word that I said.


I know the feeling! When I first started teaching, I was assigned to teach American government/civics, despite political science being my minor and that my minor had focused on comparative governments and international affairs. Thankfully, it was only a high school class and I could base so much on the book for the first few weeks until I had the time to read the material and find some interesting activities to do. Sadly, I didn't have a computer available at this time, or else I would have done so much more. But at least my second year (the 2000-2001 school year) was better: I printed off the platforms for each of the political parties on the Presidential ballot in Tennessee that year (seven of them) and had discussions over two of them a week for a month-long period. That might have been one of the highlights of my teaching career from an educational viewpoint, because I had so many students thank me for showing them just how many choices were really available in an election. If I remember things correctly, my county had a higher percentage of 18 year-old voters than most of the rest of the state. Something I'm really proud about.

So... after the initial panic mode, did you find yourself enjoying learning about medicial ethics while you were teaching?

[Gary Wassner]

Once I realized that it was an interesting topic that could easily draw upon my background in the more esoteric branches of ethics, yes. But since I was working on my masters at the same time, I really didn't have the ability to read the texts in depth. Also, this was quite a while ago, so it was a field that was just beginning to be of interest to the public and to the medical community, with Roe vs Wade etc. Aids was not yet an issue, abortion was. Cloning was not a thought yet, but the right to die was beginning to be one.

I taught a class the next semester called the Phenomenology of Hip. I didn't pick that topic either, but it dealt with the 60s and 70s and the hippie movement. I was a long haired radical (more of a flower child actually) at the time myself, so that was far more interesting and it attracted a much more artistic group of students. I taught the seminar and a prof did the large lectures.

[Gary Wassner]

So what do most people want to hear about when they read interviews by authors? Are they looking for personal things, philosophical ideas, political points of view, sexual preferences? Or do they just want to hear about the characters and books they love or think they might love?