Simon says: don't conform
Elissa Badique
Issue date: 2/27/03 Section: Features
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This intellectual self-discovery turns up in Simons' own teachings.
"A lot of kids coming fresh out of high school are not sold on the idea that their own personal history and story has a unique value, regardless of surface sophistication," said Simons. "Everyone has a unique angle, voice and story."
He is enthusiastic about helping students find this confidence in order to develop and support their own interpretations of the material.
He shuns the concept of a set syllabus and textbook-taught class. Simons constantly adjusts his syllabus to accommodate material he feels will be useful, thus keeping his students on their toes.
As for textbooks, he views textbooks as anthologies with the motivation to be as politically correct as possible. He tries to veer toward more "unfiltered" material.
Aware that students can feed off a teacher's enthusiasm, he plans to change selections each semester.
"I owe it to my students not to be comatose or on auto-pilot and to be passionate about the readings, using new and different books each semester," he said.
Simons also supports himself financially by writing novels and screenplays, even helping German new-wave filmmaker Werner Herzog (wernerherzog.com) write his first all-English screenplay. Simons also creates his own short films and dark collections of short stories which expose what Simons calls "the underbelly of the collapse of the American dream."
Simons continues to push the limits of the learning experience, encouraging students to "think outside the box"because as Simons claims,
"Conformity is the worst thing college students can adhere to."
"A lot of kids coming fresh out of high school are not sold on the idea that their own personal history and story has a unique value, regardless of surface sophistication," said Simons. "Everyone has a unique angle, voice and story."
He is enthusiastic about helping students find this confidence in order to develop and support their own interpretations of the material.
He shuns the concept of a set syllabus and textbook-taught class. Simons constantly adjusts his syllabus to accommodate material he feels will be useful, thus keeping his students on their toes.
As for textbooks, he views textbooks as anthologies with the motivation to be as politically correct as possible. He tries to veer toward more "unfiltered" material.
Aware that students can feed off a teacher's enthusiasm, he plans to change selections each semester.
"I owe it to my students not to be comatose or on auto-pilot and to be passionate about the readings, using new and different books each semester," he said.
Simons also supports himself financially by writing novels and screenplays, even helping German new-wave filmmaker Werner Herzog (wernerherzog.com) write his first all-English screenplay. Simons also creates his own short films and dark collections of short stories which expose what Simons calls "the underbelly of the collapse of the American dream."
Simons continues to push the limits of the learning experience, encouraging students to "think outside the box"because as Simons claims,
"Conformity is the worst thing college students can adhere to."