First off let me say to my two lone followers, I'm sorry that it has been a month since my last post. I really haven't had the time to take a moment and relect on the stuff going on around me. But today, since my professor let class out 40 mins. early i have decided to a farewell to a very wonderful individual that has really changed my outlook on life and college: Dr. Dave.
I first met Dr. Dave in my BIO-100 class. Carrie HIGHLY suggested that I take him for biology and I took her up on the advice. The moment he opened his mouth I understood why Carrie suggested him. He wrote his name on the board like this: Dr. David (some random middle intital) Eakin P.H.D. I tought dang he must be one of those Professors that thinks very highly of his PHD. Then he erased the the PHD off the board and said, "That really has no meaning. People can put as many letters at the end of their name as they would like but to me it has no meaning." I thought, Wow! Did he actually say that?!?! Then he erased the middle intial and basically said that his middle name was something that we would never figured out because it was embarrasing. It made us laugh. After that he erased the Eakin, and David, and put Dave instead. He said, "Just call me Dr. Dave." And we did.
Dr. Dave's BIO-100 class made the semester the funniest three months I've ever experienced. He wrote "LAUGH" up in the corner of the board most everyday, and when he would tell us a joke that none of us understood (either because it was for science-nerds or wayyy too outdated), get he would just point at that word and we would laugh to satisify him. He would make fun of himself a lot, making himself just as human as the rest of us. One day his wife called during class and we all got to talk to her over speaker phone. All 120 of us.
He also shared with us his own story. He talked us through his life experiences, and most of what he said I could relate to. His was in Boyscouts (where he earned the Silver Beaver Award...inside joke...HAHA). During his first few years in college he didn't do so well. He said that he was in college for the "wrong reasons." A bit later though, he met his future wife, and promptly re-enrolled and pulled his grades up. I simply could not believe that a college professor shared so much of life with his students.
Besides the laughter and personal stories, Dr. Dave made biology relavent to us. He taught us how to read food labels to find out exactly how much sugar and fat are in foods in teaspoons, a measurement we can understand. He walked us threw the Krebs Cycle with silly hand gestures that for all their goofiness made sense. :P Pretty much every topic that he taught us he tied in everyday life, from molecular biology right on up to the biology of aging.
I was sad to see our time in BIO 100 come to end, but I soon learned that Dr. Dave taught another class that I would need for a wellness credit. I stayed up until midnight to make sure that I had a spot in the class of only 20 students. It was in this class that I began to apprecite Dr. Dave more and more. The class was Biology of Aging, and discussed all the aging that the body goes threw as it gets older. Of course his laughter was even more aparent to our much smaller audience. There was the Silver Beaver story, the frying pan lady story and countless others, just to give you an idea.
What Dr. Dave showed me is that there actually are college professors that care deeply about their students, and that will go out of their way to them succeed. He even gave us his persronal cell phone number and said that we could call him anytime, expect that if you were a girl calling after 8pm that his wife would ge a bit suspicious... He said that he sometimes feels like a father-figure to his students, and he really was. He cares so much.
Dr. Dave really inspired me to be the type of educator that he is, to show great passion for your students learning, and to treat them as equals. Because if a student sees how much a person cares for you then the student will excell. In my case, I recieved my first A on an exam in his class. And I was so proud! But it was the compassion that he showed that motivated me to do well in his class.
Its sad that there aren't more educators in this world like Dr. Dave. There are countless stories on the news about teachers abusing students, and plenty of teachers that obviously don't care about anything but their paychecks. So when we meet with someone like Dr. Dave we should be very thankful.
So thank you, Dr. Dave. I will miss you!
