Dear Concerned Students:

I am writing this open letter to respond to some concerned students. I read several posts in DeafRead that cause us to ask ourselves the eternal question on the meaning of higher learning—not higher learning as we know at Gallaudet University, but our own learning. It is factual that we are all unique, individually blessed with a complex pattern of DNA; we understand that there is no one else like us in this vast universe. Therefore our answer to this question is an answer unique to us as well; only we alone can answer it truthfully and completely, and have it be the right answer, our right answer.

Over the years of my professoriate, I have heard countless education gurus tout the great benefits to be reaped from teaching their students. Every successful professor has their former students either write or visit him or her from time to time. Looking back over the years, I now realize I lost time and momentum not allowing this certainty to work for me sooner. I sat through post after post in DeafRead and even did the notes with true intention, however once reading was over, I looked at my notes often enough to have it drive me to write this open letter.

Having an international experience myself, I am always concerned about foreign students at Gallaudet University. I wrote to this Japanese student at Gallaudet University: “As professor of 20 years, I can assure you that a good professor makes good students. If you don't know what to do next, then you have a bad professor. That's all I can tell you as a veteran professor. I never allow my students not knowing what their semester entails. It's all in my course syllabus. I am sorry but your professor needs improvement.”

Ideally for me, all classes are discussion-based in exclusive American Sign Language (not in any of other modes of communication—too much of guesswork, thank you, JKF). There should be no class lectures; instead, the students meet together with faculty members to explore the books being read and studied. In the other words, the all-required course of study is based on the reading, study, and discussion of the assigned books.

Class discussion can be held anywhere on campus—under a tree, on a rooftop, and even in President’s residence. You can even invite your professor and classmates to your bedroom or Cafeteria to discuss the class assignment.

As I have shared with you, I fervently believe that to be a professor is to touch another’s life in a profound way. I believe that as a professor, I must accept an inescapable certainty with a sense of responsibility, developing the students to realize that learning does not always happen in classroom. Tap into the power and freedom the students have to design and create their higher learning in the way they want it to turn out. That’s the most important empowerment a good professor can make for his or her students.

Forget HMB. Forget classrooms. Find your professor and bring him or her to your dormitory!

With aloha always from Hawai’i,
Carl Schroeder

CC: FSSA