2008 Woodie Awards
The chronicle of an anti-teacher
Kelly Truong
Issue date: 6/9/08 Section: Features
Bob Dickerson was kicked out of his first school before he even hit puberty. He was 7 or 8 years old at a Sunday school in the South, and his crime was asking a question.
His teacher was leading the class in reciting the song "Jesus Loves the Little Children," which included the lyrics, "Jesus loves the little children … black and yellow, red and white, they're all precious in His sight."
"And I raised my hand and said, 'Well, if Jesus loves all the little children, then why are we all white here?'" Dickerson said.
The school preferred not to answer.
The incident marked the first step in what Dickerson has turned into a dedicated career of challenging the established social order: marching with Martin Luther King Jr., disrupting a George Wallace rally and sitting in a room with a group of Black Panthers who were plotting to overthrow the United States.
"I was a political radical," he said. "I had long hair, I was marching, I changed schools, listened to weird music."
A double major in English and philosophy, Dickerson attended a total of five different colleges as an undergraduate after first being kicked out of Duke University for absence from exams without permission. As a student, he was a self-described rebel.
"I would always speak my mind if I was in opposition to the professor," he said. "I was a smartass and I would challenge people."
As an English professor at De Anza College, he's no different.
"I think I'm an anti-teacher," he said. "I try to deliberately subvert everything that's supposed to go on in a classroom."
According to Dickerson, students see what goes on in the classroom as a gateway to other things.
"More money, a better-looking spouse," he said. "That's what they're sold. I do my best to subvert all that and turn the classroom into an anti-classroom."
Dickerson never intended to be a professor when he was young. He taught his first class as a grad student, unaware that it would become his career of choice for more than 30 years. He recalls being armed with notes and books on the first day, ready to go.
His teacher was leading the class in reciting the song "Jesus Loves the Little Children," which included the lyrics, "Jesus loves the little children … black and yellow, red and white, they're all precious in His sight."
"And I raised my hand and said, 'Well, if Jesus loves all the little children, then why are we all white here?'" Dickerson said.
The school preferred not to answer.
The incident marked the first step in what Dickerson has turned into a dedicated career of challenging the established social order: marching with Martin Luther King Jr., disrupting a George Wallace rally and sitting in a room with a group of Black Panthers who were plotting to overthrow the United States.
"I was a political radical," he said. "I had long hair, I was marching, I changed schools, listened to weird music."
A double major in English and philosophy, Dickerson attended a total of five different colleges as an undergraduate after first being kicked out of Duke University for absence from exams without permission. As a student, he was a self-described rebel.
"I would always speak my mind if I was in opposition to the professor," he said. "I was a smartass and I would challenge people."
As an English professor at De Anza College, he's no different.
"I think I'm an anti-teacher," he said. "I try to deliberately subvert everything that's supposed to go on in a classroom."
According to Dickerson, students see what goes on in the classroom as a gateway to other things.
"More money, a better-looking spouse," he said. "That's what they're sold. I do my best to subvert all that and turn the classroom into an anti-classroom."
Dickerson never intended to be a professor when he was young. He taught his first class as a grad student, unaware that it would become his career of choice for more than 30 years. He recalls being armed with notes and books on the first day, ready to go.
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