Apropos of nothing #2: College

Freshmen at St. Olaf College had only a limited number of options for classes the first year. One history seminar, one psychology class, an English class (and that will be a post of its own, later), etc.

I decided to take a history class called "Decline and Fall of the Russian Monarchy." It was a class of less than 10 students, and it was a new experience for all of us.

At the beginning of the semester, we all were still in "high school student" mode, trying to take notes as fast as we could without asking too many questions. Professor Nichols was getting a bit annoyed with this, and one day early on he decided to see if he could provoke us.

That day, Prof. Nichols welcomed us to class as usual, and then dropped this on us:

"Communism is better than Democracy."

A few moments of silence...

...followed by a huge argument. It was like a bomb went off or something. At first, we all were trying our best to knock down that statement, but the professor kept parrying our attacks effortlessly. I was trying to get my shots in, but then I suddenly started seeing his point of view, much to my surprise.

Prof. Nichols had commented about how a true communist nation wouldn't have problems with poverty (I think; it's been a long time), and one of my classmates shouted, "Yeah, that's why China's going down the shitter!"

Prof. Nichols: "Or words to that effect." (laughter)

Me: (slowly, due to a shift in my frame of reference) "China...isn't a true communist nation."

Prof. (Big grin)

I began to argue that there has never been a truly communist nation on Earth.... Someone else added that in its most idealistially (unrealistically?) perfect form, democracy may just be equivalent to communism...and the argument went on. I think we all switched sides more than once.

The class was a lot more lively after that.

It seems to me that college professors, especially those who teach freshmen seminars, have a really difficult job: They have to make students THINK.