Overhead Fred

In my sophomore year of college, I met an anomaly named Dr. Fred Jewell. I had his class in the unfortunate time slot of 1pm, right after lunch, unfortunate because he had been dubbed 'overhead Fred'. He earned this name by habitually flicking off the lights in the classroom and drawing the curtains at precisely 1pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as he flicked on the overhead projector. He proceeded to lecture for precisely 50 minutes until the bell rang at 1:50pm, when most of his dozing students would awake, groggily gather their belongings and straggle out of the classroom.

This was a general education class, and so every student was required to take Western Civilizations from Dr. Jewell, which ordinarily would just be a boring class that one would have to endure on his way to an engineering or communication degree.

But the rubber met the road on Dr. Jewell's first test. His first question went something like this...Which of the following is most correct about the region of Mesopotamia...

Most correct? I had been used to answering multiple choice questions on scantron tests that were straightforward...choose the right answer, or all of the above. But I was unprepared for this question. So...I skipped it. Went on to #2, which ran something like this...Which of the following is least correct about this statement...

Least correct? Most correct? What was this about? Nothing in my educational career up til this point had prepared me for overhead Fred. He was asking an entirely new level of discernment and critical thinking above anything that had been asked of me previously. I struggled to gain a B+ in the class, but in the long run, I think I gained even more.

Many times over the past 20 years I have told this story about Overhead Fred, and I have reflected often upon his class. He changed how I thought...how many people in our lives can really do this? Thanks, Dr. Jewell, I didn't love your class, but I am thankful for it...and may a whole new generation grow up to take your place, and help change our ways of thinking.