Who was your most influential teacher? Why?
I went to university at the age of 39. an age when most adults pretty much think they have life worked out. I discovered that I didn’t.
It was a wonderful, rejuvenating, experience.
My world opened up, I learned of things I didn’t even know I didn’t know. I learned that I was raised in a narrow, unquestioning, family with very little life experience, who spent most of their lives playing petty games thinking that equalled living.
Meeting a super-prof
I started off studying English and Creative English, but we were forced to do an elective subject in the first year. That was in case you didn’t like your choice of major, you wouldn’t have wasted a year of university you could just swap.
I’d always found history fascinating so I went for it. At the end of the first year I dumped the rather opinionated and for me personally, pretentious English, and majored in History. I
really didn’t care what an author meant when they wrote a novel, I read for enjoyment. I react having that spoiled by trying to be clever.
Turned out I didn’t need creative English either as I could already write, and history was the perfect degree for a writer. It jagged to question and teaches you to research.
Iftikhar
Walked into to our first history lecture with a thick stack of newspapers, dumped them on the desk and asked “Have you read the world news this week?”
We gave him the “duh…we’re studying history!” eye roll. His reply changed my life!
“What’s the point of studying history if you don’t apply it to what’s happening now? It helps you to predict events.
He told us precisely what would happen if Sadam Hussein was ever deposed, that he was oppressing a very dangerous Muslim sect And more people would die in Iraq and around the world as a result. He called him the true embodiment of the lesser of two evils. The rest is now history.
World. Changed!
His wisdom and knowledge was matched by the deepest kindness and empathy I’ve ever seen in anyone. It would embarrass him to know this as he was also the most humble man, but I’m a far better person for knowing him.
The privilege of walking into a room with anyone so good, so decent, so honourable, who doesn’t have a clue that they are that person, and only wants to do good and help wherever they can, marks you for life in the best possible way.
Through him I discovered Gandhi’s 7 Social Sins, a quick but fascinating read. Politics without principles rings a bell. You may enjoy it if you haven’t encountered it.
So there you go. I’ve never hero worshipped anyone in my life, but that man came very close. I still think of him, he’s like a light in my mind.
Deb xx
Deb Hawken - Amorah 