This is Why I Love Being a Teacher

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Yesterday, I received a sweet email from one of my students. He wanted to know if I'd be in the office today as he would like to stop by and deliver a copy of his senior honors thesis to me. He is graduating as an Economics/Sociology major and took my "History of Poverty and Prosperity in Africa" course this spring semester.

In the course, we dealt with a lot of development and sustainability issues in the context of Africa. Needless to say, he was an all-around stellar student in the course.

He said that my course informed and helped him (re)conceptualize and enrich his thesis, which uses regression analysis to assess the sustainability and scalability of rural and small-town PPP water supply projects in Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Kenya.

Naturally, I was excited and flattered and wrote back telling him I would be in my office.

He did not mention that he was coming with a surprise. Andy Ruan, it turns out, is a published author at the age of 22. This is the beautifully autographed copy of his 2021 book he brought to me along with his senior thesis (both pictured). He authored this book during the pandemic lockdown, he told me.

He told me that he interviewed several people in the World Bank, IMF, the Asian Development Bank, and similar institutions, as well as many other experts in international development NGOs, academia, and governmental bureaucratic institutions.

He said my class and our discussions challenged several of the arguments in the book and that if he were to write the book today, it would be a slightly different book.

Thankfully, according to him, his honors thesis reflects his current views. Nonetheless, he wanted to warn me that I might find some of the arguments/analyses in both works in conflict, so I should regard the contradiction as indicative of his evolution in thinking on the issues of infrastructure, sustainability, and development.

Not only was I flattered that he credited me and my class with shaping and reshaping his thinking on the subject of development, poverty, and prosperity in Africa, I was impressed that he remembered several lines and ideas from my lectures and our class discussions that enriched his perspectives. This book (you can purchase it on amazon) joins the list of my summer reading.

I asked his permission to share this and he excitedly agreed. He's passionate about international development and hopes to work in the field for a while, perhaps through an impact investing hedge fund, venture capital, or through a development focused multilateral institution or INGO.

I encouraged him and told him that the world of international development, which can be insular, incestuous, and dogmatic, needs self-critical, introspective, and analytically nimble and humble people like him to help reform and tame its cocksure intellectual and prescritive hubris from within.

If you are wondering why I enjoyed being a teacher so much, here is the reason right here.

[Harrow, Kenneth]

wonderful. this is the truth: the best thing about teaching is this rewarding relationship with students who care.

congratulations professor moses!

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 2:24 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This is Why I Love Being a Teacher

 

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[Toyin Falola]

Moses:

It is uplifting, and thanks for sharing the story. We cannot be talking about crises and wars, Putin, elections, etc., without talking about enduring values and happy moments.

Some of our members pray, go to church and mosque, are spiritual, etc., and get disturbed. We must uplift them. I see the pains in Professor Femi Kolapo’s messages as a Christian and scholar.

I do the Ramadan messages, Christmas songs, and African new generation songs for one reason: to uplift the spirits.

Sometimes when I argue, as when you said Nigeria is a failed state, and I say it is a dysfunctional state, my goal is clear: we cannot take away hope from millions of people. That hope that people have, money cannot buy it. Hope eliminates trauma. God will give millions of people hope and passion. God will preserve lives and elevate talents. Politicians in Nigeria and warriors in Ukraine will not waste people's lives.

You and your student will prosper.

TF

 

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 2:28 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This is Why I Love Being a Teacher

 

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

What a fantastic story!

How can a human being develop the level of agency, the creativity, drive and focus demonstrated by this student?!

How can students, everywhere, cultivate the culture of being scholars, knowledge creators and impactors?

Theoritical speaking, what this chap has done can be done by anyone, anywhere, given the contemporary ubiquity and ease of access to information and publishing systems.

What are the relative chances of it's being done by a particular person, in a particular place, given the variety of students and learning environments in the world?

Schooling everywhere should be geared more towards the student as creator and less to the student as learner, although learning is foundational to creativity.

Strategic to learning is the culture of appreciation of his teacher this student demonstrates and the intellectual and social intelligence so projected.

I salute him and his teacher who must have done an impressive job to be so appreciated.

Thanks

Toyin

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

toyin, if i might disagree a bit, getting a book written at a level to be accepted by a publisher is pretty difficult. most publishers vet the mss. that come in. if they look decent, and fit the program of the press, they are sent out to readers, maybe 2 maybe 3, who are expert in the field. get a manuscript accepted by them requires a high level of quality.

my two cents.

if a student could do it, he must be extraordinary.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 6:27 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This is Why I Love Being a Teacher

 

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[Emmanuel Udogu]

Thanks for sharing Moses.

Ike Udogu

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Great thanks, Ken.

 I agree on the process of getting a book published by a particular kind of  publisher. I also agree that a student, and at that age, who can do that, is extraordinary.

 I wanted us to express sensitivity to this quality demonstrated by the young man.

I see that his publisher is one that provides a rich training program for prospective writers, suggesting how he might have upscaled from undergraduate writing to publishing a book with the kind of publisher you are referring to.

Reflecting on the quality of motivation, discipline, persistence, ambition, that took him that far, is fruitful.

In stating anyone, anywhere, can do the same, I meant they can if they cultivate such qualities. Those qualities are cultivable. As we know, they are not  biological features that are not open to modification.

One may live in a village in the remotest part of the Amazon, if such villages still exist there, or in rural Nigeria, and through the Internet, do what he has done. 

The question then becomes the likelihood of people in various circumstances doing something similar.

Also, I see simply publishing a book as a particular value in itself, even if one self publishes. Had Ochonu's student done all he did to ensure a quality production, had the book properly edited, ideally by a high quality editor, and self published it, it would still be a notable achievement. 

I am also arguing that with the ubiquity of publishing platforms, anyone, anywhere,  can publish a book, but that book publication still requires a particular degree of dedication that makes it a test of discipline of some kind.

I'm interested in the individual and group cultures that conduce to such achievements, particularly in scholarship.

thanks

toyin

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

all true, toyin. if anyone on the list needs elucidation on the difference between self-published and not, that is important to bear in mind.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 9:57 PM
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

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