EDUCATION| CORRECTION|ACADEMICS| LEARNING| UNIVERSITY
THE DAY I Humbly CORRECTED MY PROF
In every rule, there is always an exception
We were in the first year of the university first semester. The story behind that particular course was such of shock and awe.
Many students had failed the course woefully. Many would return to rewrite it as a carried-over subject.
Others were frightened by the fact that it was handled by a Professor whose body and verbal language was full of frightening mien and intellectual terrorism (sorry: only used for the sake of effect).
Several other students had seemed to have failed the course even before sitting for the proper examination. The fear of the course plus the fear of the Prof equalled automatic repetition of the course.
That particular day, however, perhaps another spirit had entered inside of me. Or, better still: I would not have needed to be scared of something just because others were.
In short, I was simply myself. I did not envisage anything nor regarded it as any special event, as it were.
The Prof was lecturing in his usual manner. He had given examples of certain verbs and their subtly (un)predictable forms — cunningly capable of deceiving anyone, especially the uninitiated, according to him.
I humbly interjected, “Sir, what is wrong with “broadcasted” as the past tense of “broadcast”?
He retorted in a such a tone that Goliath had probably used in threatening and successfully intimidating the lives out of Saul and his chicken-hearted men. “My friend, we are talking about professional language here.”
“Yes sir, I saw in a particular dictionary where broadcasted was shown as (one of) the past form(s) of broadcast.” He was furious probably like when Nebuchadnezzar was informed that the three Hebrew boys could not bow down to his carved image.
He managed to control himself as he scornfully handed the dictionary back to me to produce my strong evidence of defence — of course, with his left hand.
I calmly slipped through the pages and reached where the headword was. Surprisingly, he could not believe his eyes.
On further studies afterwards, I discovered that earlier editions of Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary had both options: broadcast (-ed). The latter editions however stuck to broadcast.
Significantly, the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (which specializes on etymology of words) expressly used broadcasted. This given dictionary could be described as more professional or technical than that of the OALD.
Recall that he had classified broadcast alongside cast which did not have different past or past participle forms. On confirming the fact, he obviously felt somewhat defeated, deflated and humiliated.
But there was really no contest in the first place. It was a rather regular interaction between a teacher and a student.
If the class was calm, the Prof was calmer. Uneasy quiet filled the classroom. He managed to utter the next set of words: “Well, you should go with the first.”
What that meant was that both were correct: broadcast or broadcasted. The Prof had really classified cast and broadcast as having the same form and therefore could not have had any change whatsoever in both their past and past participle forms whatsoever.
After the class, one of my colleagues known as “Prof” (nickname) narrated how he loved what had transpired that day. He subtly praised my bold stance.
But whatever happened that day never entered my head. The Prof remained my favorite lecturer. His writing vis-a-vis his books spoke volumes of his highly developed talent nurtured in knowledge-cum-experience.
His general disposition was fastidious. He was an absolute authoritarian when it came to sticking to accuracy. He did emphasize punctuation more than any other lecturer.
Honestly, his publications were meticulously outstanding. Despite being characteristically voluminous, you would hardly see any mechanical error.
As a matter of fact, 65% of my writing style could be traced to him.
The fact that he was trained in Nigeria, London and Liverpool made him stand out as an authority in the use of freshman English. His style of lecture and writing was conversational.
His diction, style, rhythm, focus and structure were professional, charismatic and subtly entertaining. In one of his books, he emphasized the use of humour as the oil that makes readership freely sustainably mobile.
After that day’s encounter, did he recognize me? No, not at all. He would consistently pride himself that what could an undergrad write that PhD- holders had never encountered times without number.
Nevertheless, that encounter would always re-echo in me certain lessons of human life, thus:
- Nobody has it all and nobody lacks it all.
- The wise learn from a fool. It is the fool that thinks otherwise.
- Before a method became accepted, it was once a big silliness somewhere.
- Learning has no graduation date. Only the dead have finally graduated.
- Pride and confidence are not bad. Whenever they are excessive, then the real danger beckons.
- Knowledge is dynamic. Information is never static.
- Update is crucial for ideal sustenance of any worthy concept.
- Anybody could be wrong at any given time irrespective of how experienced one could have been.
- Nothing is true until it has been established by consistent confirmation.
- According to an American saying: “Swallow your pride occasionally, it is non-fattening.”
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