Professor of the year teaches future leaders

By Butch Wehry
Academy Spirit staff

Is instructing at the Academy different than at a civilian school? "It had better be different," said Lt. Col. Tom McGuire, the 2007 Carnegie Foundation Advancement of Teaching Professor of the year. "There's the obvious knowledge that among your class you may have future squadron and wing commanders, general officers, and
perhaps even congresswomen and congressmen. With this in mind, one tries to make a small contribution to the important formation of cadets by giving them a solid grounding in oral and written communication, ethical leadership, understanding character as well as cultivating a broad historical and cultural perspective."

The Department of English and Fine Arts associate English professor was presented the award in Washington, D.C. at a luncheon at the Willard InterContinental Hotel on Thursday. His particular field ? the study of the intersection between literature and
violence - receives different accents and emphasis in a military academy environment. Many civilian English professors teach and write about the literature of violence, but few specifically focus on war literature.

"Very few civilian universities, for example, devote an entire course to war literature - it's kind of taboo," said the 17 - and-one-half year Air Force veteran from Auburn, Calif. "We not only teach tons of war lit in my department, we publish an internationally acclaimed journal of war, literature and the arts - edited by my mentor Donald Anderson. In contrast to my civilian counterparts, I feel a profound responsibility to explore the literature of war with my cadets."

The fact that many of his students will soon be serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas, lends the study of war literature a certain immediacy and gravitas. So when he shares Osama Bin Laden's poetry with his students and analyzes it with an eye not only to its artistry but also its ideology, his students are keenly interested and invested in the study of war lit. For them and the colonel, it's not just an academic, ivory tower exercise.

This top professor draws from his overseas deployments to help teach classes.

"The experience I return to most often is my two year tour attached to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara working at the Office of Defense Cooperation Turkey," said Colonel McGuire. "It was a joint job so I have lots of war stories about what it's like adjusting to the idiosyncrasies and predilections of Army and Navy officers, but also what it's like supervising Army NCOs. I think what's most helpful and instructive is relating my experiences working directly with Turkish military members." As director of International Training, a shop that ran Turkey's International Military Education and Training program, the second largest such program at the time after Israel's, he had three Turkish officers working for him.

"I tell cadets that my greatest successes and failures in that job were a direct function of my ability to understand cultural and language barriers," said the professor. "I tell cadets that their effectiveness as military officers in today's global society will be enhanced by the core international and cross-cultural experiences they have today as cadets - things such as language training, traveling abroad and global engagement. Cadets need to know the value of cultural awareness and sensitivity." He's a personnel officer in the operational Air Force who teaches Greek and Roman Classics; British Literature Surveys 1 and 2; Irish Literature (especially seminars in Joyce and Yeats); American Poetry Junior Seminar; English 211 Advanced Composition and Literature (core course). He has also taught in the Scholars Program, the scholars version of English 211.

Ask this award winner what are the most important requirements to be an award winning instructor and he'll tell you, "Expertise - won through many years of long hard study at good civilian universities with great professors who modeled the intellectual life and great teaching and scholarship for me. Building and maintaining expertise requires long hours of study at night and on the weekends. It also requires active and vigorous involvement in one's discipline through publishing and presenting conference presentations." Enthusiasm is also vital.

"Some cadets despise poetry, others love it," said Colonel McGuire. "My job is to get all my cadets excited about poetry and other forms of literature. If your love for your subject matter is not evident and not frequently contagious, then you're going to struggle in the classroom."

He said genuine concern for one's students as budding intellects and human beings with all the burdens of being human definitely has a place. An instructor doesn't have to be the student's friend, but he must be compassionate.

Colonel McGuire believes students are different now than in the mid 1990s.

The professor said the greatest satisfaction of being an instructor are the small victories such as seeing a deficient student improving and becoming proficient.

"There are large victories such as having students come back two to three years later and saying thanks for exposing them to a particular idea or book," the professor of the year said. "I recently had a captain come back to teach in my department whom I taught when she was a cadet. She told me that I had inspired her to become an English major - that made my day.