Last Saturday was Scholars’ Day at Wofford College, a time
when high school seniors who are considering Wofford converge on the school to
be interviewed. Particularly
impressive candidates may receive scholarships as a result of their hour-long
conversations with a panel composed of a faculty member, a current student, and
a Wofford graduate. As young
people seek to impress the panelists, the panelists are also charged with
courting the students, since many of these folks are considering our rival
colleges (Davidson, Furman, etc.) as well.
With education costs rising, enrollment battles have become particularly
fierce the last few years, so everyone needs to bring an ‘A-game’ to this
contest.
I have always been impressed by the number of alumni who are
willing to return to Wofford on a miserable February Saturday to help in this
essential task. I’m not sure that
my loyalty to my old university would ever be that strong! But each year I see people who
graduated in years ranging from the 1950s to the most recently matriculated
class happily come home for this chore.
I was gathering up my things to go to the meeting when I
heard a knock on my office door.
There were two former students of mine who had taken the time to look me
up and say hello. Both are medical
folks: she is already a practicing OB/GYN and he is in his final year of
medical school. We quickly caught
up on our lives, and as he prepared to depart, Mr. Hufford---who had been in my
Sherlock Holmes Humanities class as a freshman---promised to send me an article from a medical
journal, which argued that all potential doctors should immerse themselves in
the Sherlock Holmes stories.
And that promise got me to thinking about what it is we
really remember about our college experiences. I doubt that most of us---even those of us who might be
accused of having too much
education!---can recite any particular lesson. I would be hard pressed to recall the
names of my textbooks, or even the monographs I read in graduate seminars. Classes that I sat through in order to
meet requirements have vanished from my memory. I am far more likely to recall that a particular professor
was funny, or boring, or especially difficult to please than I am to be able to
discuss the content of his/her course.
Even my beloved major professor is clearer to me for how he taught---his
amusing phrases, his way with a story, the twirling of his spectacles in one
hand---than for the exactness of the dates and facts I learned in his class.
Clearly, Mr. Hufford had learned a great deal at
Wofford---he was in Phi Beta Kappa and glided into medical school. I’m sure he remembers many, many
things. But I was so touched to
find that Sherlock Holmes was still a part of his life, enough so that he would
still want to share an article with me, his now ancient and decrepit former
instructor! Sherlock had clearly
‘stuck’ with him. And I know that
Holmes has staying powers with other students as well. I’ve often received notes from students
in the years after graduation. One
student told me that his copy of the canon was the ONLY book he didn’t sell
back at graduation!
College is a treasure-house of memories. Students don’t always remember content
(I have no illusions that my Western Civilization students will recall the
details of the Hundred Years War or the French Revolution a decade from now!)
but hopefully their exposure to the liberal arts will inspire lifelong
curiosity and respect for learning.
Even if the exact nature (and grade) of a research paper is dismissed,
the ability to do research, think critically about a thesis, and write clearly
remains. Young people may forget
classes, but they will recall their friends, their good times and their
struggles, and emerge from Wofford with the maturity and self-reliance to take
on the world. I like to think that
Wofford students leave us with the best ideas, examples, and challenges we can
give them.
Clearly, Mr. Hufford left with Sherlock Holmes in his medical
school survival arsenal! I can’t
take
credit for that. All the
credit belongs to the genius of Arthur Conan Doyle, who crafted a series of
stories that embody the liberal arts.
The canon makes one think about science, history, psychology, art,
music, politics, government, technology, sociology, criminology, and gender
relations. A thoughtful reader
will confront issues of colonialism, sexism, and racism. Most importantly, the Sherlock Holmes stories
are invitations to critical thinking, which is the beating heart of higher
education.
I’m delighted that many of my students take Sherlock with
them, because he can always lead them back to being Wofford scholars.
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