Viet Thanh Nguyen, Professor of English at University of
Southern California and Pulitzer Prize winning author, notes:
Being a good teacher is hard. So is maintaining
democracy. Our political leaders should take note.
“Our mutual obligation as professor and students is to
care. I care enough to give engaging lectures and to stimulate discussion, even
with 150 students. My students, for the most part, care enough to show up, or
at least two-thirds to three-fourths of them do. Their obligation, as is the
obligation of all citizens and residents, is to listen and to learn. To
question. To participate. To be in a room where they share similarities and
differences. These demands are similar to what a democracy requires from its
residents and citizens.”