Larry Curnutt

Teaching and Professional Activities

I believe in the church of baseball. I've tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones. I've worshiped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic's rosary and there are 108 stiches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there's no guilt in baseball. And it's never boring...... It's a long season and you gotta trust it. I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball.
(Annie Savoy, opening soliloquy in the movie Bull Durham)

That's pretty much the way I feel about mathematics and teaching. I love to work to understand mathematics and then try to clarify and explain it to others. There's nothing else I care to do, day after day, year after year -- not fish, not ski, not train dogs, not travel, not loaf -- nothing! The hardest thing about teaching is laying back, keeping my mouth shut. The most important things a teacher can do are to set contexts, provide motivation and applications, and, above all, to ask (not just answer) the right provocative questions.

Most of us in the Mathematics Department take turns teaching the whole spectrum of offerings, from pre-algebra through differential equations. I enjoy working with students at all levels, but I confess a preference for teaching certain courses that are especially rich in big, new ideas and perspectives, courses where student "Ah-ha"s are usually louder and more frequent: 091, 107, 124, 157, 208, 238, for example.

I came to BCC winter quarter, 1974. I've stayed all these years because there's no place like the Pacific Northwest (despite fatitious threats of escaping to Montana, where there are fewer cars and more trout); because of the rewarding experiences I've had with students, who come and go all too quickly; because of the close, stimulating camaradarie that has always existed in the Mathematics Department; and because of the college's willingness to support faculty professional activities outside the classroom, that are essential to making informed innovations in the classroom. My own extracurricular professional activities have, for the most part, involved the Mathematical Association of America (MAA - the world's largest organization devoted to the interests of collegiate mathematics), serving on editorial boards, chairing committees, holding various regional offices, reviewing calculus reform projects, etc.