Professor Perfect

I knew only about a little of his persona back then: that he was feared by many and took no regard in making rather unsightly offenses to his students. Opinions of him might slightly vary, but always, they are the same, that he is a stern perfectionist whose prospects are impossible to meet even halfway.

Forty-five or so English majors are waiting anxiously at QH 107 at about 6:45 in the morning. This is rather odd for it is customary in the university that students come in class at the exact time (7:00) if not tardy. At the appointed time, not a minute or less, a medium built man, with a well shaved head and an expressionless face entered the room, rapidly uttered “Get ¼ piece of paper, No. 1.” in two seconds. After about a couple of minutes, the class finished their ten item test for the day. The highest score was six.

After the test, he calls the discussant of the day. The nervous discussant stands in front owning the attention of his bewildered, uneasy and traumatized classmates while the professor sits at the back poring over the discussant’s materials and delivery of the report. You wouldn’t see any satisfaction in his face while the discussant is rumbling words, making something out of his misery. Disgruntled, he asks for questions after another to the discussant. Oops, the discussant pronounced a word incorrectly and he was asked to transcribe (to write the symbols of the sound that are heard when you pronounce the word, not the common spelling) “rendezvous” in the board. Transcribing is not just difficult, it’s degrading.


“Ms. Katrina!” he said in full volume. “Please paraphrase the last stanza of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat for us.” 

Startled, I launched from my chair to meet his eyes and I uttered the stanza with all my heart and soul.

“A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,

A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness—

Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!”

Silence. "What do I say now?" I told myself.

“Sir, I think, “Book of Verses” means the Bible or the Talmud or the Quran, depending on one’s religion. “Jug of Wine and A Loaf of Bread” are the symbolisms of water that replenishes thirst and food that satisfy hunger – the basic things that support life. And “Thou” is God. These four things are the things that we need in order to overcome “Wilderness” or the savage impediments that comes in our life. And life is only “Paradise” when we overcome “Wilderness.”

“Thank you. Ms Katrina. That’s good. Very good.”

I smiled. Whew! I don’t want to brag but, that was the first and only “Very Good” I heard from him.

Dazed, I stumble out of the classroom determined to prepare better for tomorrow's class. Scared, even resentful in the early weeks (the man does not let up!), I come to appreciate the intensity and rapid-fire intellect of my teacher. Clearly, he cares. A lot. And five failed quiz later, something transformative has happened: we all are better thinkers.

Though his reputation had been unconstructive all these years, I am telling the truth (though everyone will throw tomatoes and eggs on me after this), that I really like the way he teaches. (Here come the tomatoes and eggs!). His voice might be thunderous and intimidating and deep like a trench, but I don’t see how everyone I know that was his student before come to hate him. I actually and genuinely believe in his insights about things, most things that he teaches. All the questions he asks are not to baffle us, they are asked to make us think and reflect and consider things – things which will be especially necessary to us as English majors!

I see how he laughs at the mistakes of his students, how he had hysterics over my classmates’ spelling of “Idle” as” Idol”, “Bow” as “Bough.” I know how his face turned into a mud pie when he’s disgruntled with our answers, but behind that off-putting status he had unconsciously built over the years, I still see how a brilliant professor he is. All I can see are countless amounts of wisdom and over-brimming intelligence. I can see that he cares a lot to develop us, to transform us into bona fide lovers of literature and English.

My classmate Joven, stood up and said. “Actually Sir, with all due respect, we are afraid of you.”

He snickered and replied, “No, you’re not afraid of me, you’re afraid of yourselves, of the reality that you are not good enough.”

I only smiled. It’s the truth.