Miami Moments

Sharing Time

ext year I will have been a professor at the University of Miami for a quarter of a century-a third of its history. I came to Miami fresh out of graduate school. I was younger than most of the students taking my graduate courses.

The changes I have seen in that time, both at the University and in America have been remarkable. In late 1978, just a few years after I arrived, my wife and I bought our first computer. It was the first microcomputer in my school and certainly one of the first on the Coral Gables campus. AIDS began to be widely described as a mysterious disease at about the time I came up for tenure.

As the years passed, I watched the University grow and mature. Temporary buildings left over from the Second World War were torn down and replaced by new facilities. Palm trees and lush landscaping began to camouflage much of the University's doubtful early architecture. Walks lined with trees now create vistas and pull the campus together-punctuated by fountains whose cool waters create rainbows in the tropical sunshine. This is where I work.

Along with the campus redesign came a toughening of academic standards. I saw the University move away from its reputation as "Suntan U" to its national standing as a Research I university. I also saw UM bathe in the glory of several national football championships.

Other than my wife, Asterie, TAL 101 (Introduction to Education) has been the most constant thing in my life. Except during sabbaticals, I have taught the course every semester since I came to Miami. I currently team-teach the course with an educational psychologist. My half of the course focuses on social and cultural issues related to schooling. Over the years I have incorporated emerging issues like AIDS and the Social Meaning of Computing and Mass Media into the course, but basically it's about schools and the social forces that shape them.

Each semester I have 100 to 150 students in the course. I have come to measure the progress of each semester and my life, not with "teaspoons in coffee cups," but by lectures, assignments, and exams. The course marks the passing of my time at Miami. One doesn't particularly notice one's hair going gray, or the gradual thickening of one's middle. My students constantly remind me, however, of time passing and of changes that are underway in the University and society.
Music groups I have never heard of (even though I research popular culture), slang expressions whose meaning I don't have a clue about, and clothing styles I can't in any way fathom, are all part of my day-to-day experience with the undergraduates. While at times perplexed, I frankly enjoy the experience.

Every once in a while, an experience brings home the passage of time in a special way. My wife and I don't have children, so I probably feel closer to my undergraduates than most professors. Because I teach in the School of Education, the great majority of my students are women. As a rule, I am very fond of them. They're good kids-generally smart, well-intentioned and even a bit sweet under sometimes tough exteriors.

Lately, several students have sneaked up next to me after class, put their arm around my shoulder and given me hug before I have a chance to protest. Then they get a little misty-eyed, smile, and shyly say something like, "I miss my Dad. You make me think of him." When they tell me I remind them of their grandfather, I'll know it's time to retire.
I can't think of a better way to measure the time.

-Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.