Professor #1: Dr. Hansen

I'm really enjoying my schooling right now. When you have four great professors, it really helps. It especially helps when those four great professors have four distinct personalities (that must be a prerequisite). I think I'll write about each one so you can get an idea of what these guys are like.

When Dr. Hansen first walked into our classroom, he had a sour look on his face. He scanned the classroom up and down as if he was looking for someone in particular. At first he's not much to look at. His head is full of gray hair and his body is small. Now this body being small exaggerates another feature of his body: his belly. His belly sticks out considerably almost to where he could use it as a table.

It seemed his purpose upon entering the room was to "torture" our minds. And in a sense I was right. He started off by drilling us on our reading we were assigned. "What's a set?" he would ask.

"A group of items," came the feeble attempt. Dr. Hansen didn't even entertain the answer.

"No. *cough* Be specific." (He always coughs when he talks)

"I think its a..."

"You think? *cough* I want you to know! Tell me with confidence!" he answered as he grinned a clever grin that I would soon come to learn was his trademark. The round of answers kept on going for a minute or so when he explained his methods. "Look. My purpose here, and you'll hear me say this again and again, *cough* is to get you to think. (Ugh! It is torture!) I don't care what you learn necessarily in my class because you'll just forget it in a year. I care that you learn how to think." he stated as he pounded the podium. "Now, what is a set?"

I'll have a hard time forgetting this lesson, especially since he did in fact repeat it every week. Dr. Hansen is my favorite professor because of his challenging demeanor. I go to his classes hoping to beat him at his game. Never likely, but I try harder in order to see if I can outsmart the questionnaire.