Robert Gaudino
Robert Lee Gaudino (1925 – 1974) was a professor of political science at Williams College from 1955 to 1974. He was "arguably the greatest Williams College educator of the 20th century." Gaudino's dissertation at the University of Chicago focused on the issue of academic freedom. Gaudino wasA popular teacher beloved by students for his engaging, personal enthusiasm that extended far beyond the confines of the classroom --- the oft repeated maxim goes, "he did not have students but disciples" --- he held very strict ideas about classroom decorum, addressing his students by their last names, insisting that they come to class on time and that they be prepared to be called upon at any time to enter into a Socratic-style dialogue related to the day's reading.Gaudino served in the US Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946. He wrote The Indian University.Gaudino argued that Williams should "actively promote a range of experiences that have the creative potential to unsettle and disturb" as part of a program of "uncomfortable learning" based on the "unsettling experience." In The Uncomfortable Learning: Some Americans in India, Gaudino described the experiences of Peace Corps volunteers in India:The first movements of introspection put in an unintended appearance. The first he has ever had time for. The introspection begins in his uncertainty. He does not view it as a source of pleasure, or of distraction. It is a new kind of learning process, subtly resented, yet felt as valuable in not very definable ways. It is not the normal education, and is not accompanied by normal feelings of being educated. The underlying uncertainty never goes away. Is it really worth it? Is it worth the waste of talent? It is worth it for India to educate volunteers with her own great tasks undone? Is it worth it for the government of the United States to spend so much on so little practical return. But, most fundamentally, is it worth it for the volunteer himself when he could really be doing things, worthwhile things, at Home? Is it worth the loss of earning power, of self-esteem, of confidence in one's own powers? What is there to show for the two slow, drawn-out years but a sense of one's own failure? Why is it necessary to see what one does see? ("You face what's there, and what's there isn't what you think or what you thought is there.") And how does it all end? Not in changing but in accepting. In waiting and not cursing the waiting. It means ignoring, not dealing with the problem. The worst way of handling a problem because it doesn't lead to a solution. It leads to nothing in the real world.This is the new kind of learning that takes place, the uncomfortable learning. The volunteer appreciates it and dislikes it. It is like a stolen thing: never one's own. A hostile thing: never giving one harmony. It never provides resolution, but is merely the source of new irresolutions. It is hard to explain to others who have not come along on the trip. It appears nowhere in Peace Corps recruitment or promises. It is lonely, self-conscious, isolating, conducive to lethargy, boring, disagreeable. But it sees things not seen before....As the problems pile up, they do not resolve themselves but end in withdrawal. The education which the volunteer is receiving does little to pull him out. It does not provide him with a new start. In fact, it brings on further lethargy. He learns that the doing of a thing and the experiencing of a thing are very different from the knowledge about a thing. Doing and experiencing have dimensions which cannot be contained by abstract knowledge or pure description. Control, for the first time, is uncertain, for knowledge does not yield control. The volunteer discovers the limits to what he can do. This is unsettling to the normal American. They are not the lessons one would consciously choose to learn, or care to continue. But there is no free choice in this kind of learning. It is forced upon one. And it is not without its own satisfaction.Gaudino believed strongly in the importance of discussion and debate.It's hard for students to move a discussion toward coherent insights. They often argue points, present anecdotes, show difficulties, talk to each other in ways which tend to end and close off discussion rather than to push it further. It is not easy to lead a discussion in ways which help students to show their judgments, and to use the discussiuons to illuminate those judgments. Mostly, student-run discussions end up as lists of comments and opinions without engagement or movement....We insist on discussion. Talk is encouraged, stressed, demanded, forced. Silence is suspect . . . going back to what went before, listening to and questioning others, comparing and contrasting, and most important making distinctions and applying them. As much as possible, we want to keep in touch with our own judgments. The grounds of opinion will be analyzed, questioned, compared, even tested and criticized. Not all at once, of course. And gently at first. It is possible that we may end up more as dwarfs than giants. Hopefully . . . . Our discussion require a common effort. It is important that we engage each other. This will take will, energy, patience, perception, sensitivity, and even a bit of compassion.Gaudino died in 1974 of a neurological disease.
