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DON’T BE LATE: Bernstein
began his history lectures the moment students
were seated.
Ed Sousa/News Service |
Buzzer sounds, students
rise. Barton Bernstein may have been the first professor
in history to conquer that Pavlovian response.
When the buzzer sounded in his class, America Since
World War II, Bernstein would hold up two fingers and,
without a skip in his cadence, say, “Two more
minutes.” As the quarter continued, more and more
students overcame their reaction to the buzzer and remained
in their seats.
If Bernstein could have begun his lecture two minutes
before the buzzer that started class, he would have.
Most professors eased into class, spending a minute
letting the group settle down, or making what small
talk one can make with 100 or so people. Bernstein began
his lecture instantly. You learned to have your notebook
out, pen poised above it, from the start.
Which leads me to another memory of him: if ever there
is an Olympic sprint event in lecturing, Bernstein will
be in Lane 4. The man spoke New York fast,
and he was riveting. More than any nugget of information
that I learned from him, I recall the passion he spewed
forth rat-a-tat-tat and the passion he awoke in me.
I was not one of Bernstein’s star students; I
don’t know that I ever had a conversation with
him. But God, how I loved to listen to him. I want to
return to Stanford and pay attention to every professor
the way I did to Barton Bernstein.
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