The Back Page: A Life in Teaching and Turbulence


Most of you are younger than me — some, a lot younger. So perhaps you will not dismiss me entirely when I make three points on my own conduct. The first is that, for many years now, I have tried not to be the smartest person in the room. I admit that I may have tried to be so at one time, and may even have succeeded at various levels, but it became clear to me that I wasn’t learning much by being so.