When Bose walked out
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slice.mit.edu
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Professor Patrick Henry Winston ’65, SM ’67, PhD ’70
A few days ago, I was almost trampled by a herd of freshmen stampeding out of 26-100, so I went in to see what had been happening. It turned out to be a 7.01 lecture, freshman biology.
Being in 26-100, somehow the Big Event came to mind. It happened a long time ago when I took 6.01, Introduction to Circuit Theory. Professor Amar Bose, who later founded Bose Corporation, lectured. Electrical engineering sophomores sat at two-person tables, equipped with—hard to believe today—colorful stamped-aluminum ash trays.
In those days, students often made a hissing noise, like a snake, whenever an instructor announced a quiz or told a particularly corny joke. Bose didn't like it; he considered it insulting. On the first day of class, he announced there would be no hissing.
A few weeks later, somebody hissed. Bose said that whoever hissed would have to leave, and someone left.
Then, a lecture or two later, early in the lecture, someone hissed again. But this time the culprit refused to identify himself. So Bose left, and that lecture was gone forever. Those who knew the hisser or sat close to him gave him a pretty hard time. Nobody in the class ever hissed at Bose again. Alumni still talk about it at reunions: “Do you remember when Bose walked out?”
We knew Bose respected us because he put 100 hours a week into 6.01. We respected him because he didn't put up with what he considered insults. Mutual respect is the stuff from which great education emerges.
When Bose walked out, it licensed me to say when I became a professor myself, that there would be no newspaper reading in my classes. Later, I took pride in being among the first to forbid open laptop computers* in my classrooms, believing that reading papers, surfing the web, and doing email is as insulting as hissing. I respect my students, and I want them respect me.
*Every once in a while I look in on a lecture from the back of the hall. After checking 10 of the open laptops, I leave. I have yet to see one that isn't being used to surf the web or read email.
| Amar Bose recently passed away, but his legacy survives in the many students he taught and mentored. |
Comments
Anchit Shethia
Tue, 01/14/2014 12:46pm
I don’t remember any incident anything like this in any class I ever had. No one ever hissed either, groan maybe, but not hiss. Of course there were only 3 girls in my EE class.
Anonymous MITer
Wed, 07/24/2013 2:01pm
Thanks, all--I love this story & the comments from days gone by. RIP, Dr. Bose.
Aaron Goldberg
Thu, 09/01/2011 12:51pm
OK I was there also. The year was 1962 and Dr Bose did warn us about disrespect at the beginning. But my memory of this is a bit different and slightly darker. Dr. Bose may have made an error on the board and someone may have laughed or hissed. Dr. Bose threatened to leave and after what seemed like several long moments one of the students about 5 tables behind me got up and left, creating an audible gasp in the student body. Dr. Bose relaxed and continued. Toward the end of the course the same thing happened, only this time no one left and Dr. Bose walked out and DID not return for the remaining few lectures of the course, believing that we all knew who did it (laughed) and would therefore be held accountable. In typical MIT fashion we were held responsible for the material and the problem set(s) based on it. It makes for a good story now and from what I've heard about the early days of The Bose Corporation probably gives some clue about the corporate environment there.
Gerry Holt
Thu, 11/04/2010 9:06pm
Something else that Prof. Bose didn't like was students talking during his lectures. One day in his class, a person beside me quietly asked me a question about something related to the lecture. Prof. Bose saw me when I answered and threw me out.
I was an older, married undergraduate and was thouroughly pissed off. I felt he was treating the class like high school students. Had this happened a few years later, I would never have left the lecture.
Bert Forbes, EE '66
Mon, 11/01/2010 1:51pm
I was there, too. The event made a real impression on me, and I've told the story many times in my life. I have a lasting respect for Amar Bose.
Also, where else would you have exam problems that were the electrical analog of acoustic problems? Later we would find out as Bose Corporation started.
I agree on taking notes on a laptop--it's a must today. I built a radio noise jammer to stop irritating music in chemlab :)
joseph patterson
Sat, 10/30/2010 5:33am
Patrick Henry Winston,
I was in the room that day Bose walked out. You neglected to add that Bose spent the 100 hours a week because he used 6.01 to write a book. He handed out printed lecture material but only 3-6 weeks later when it was almost useless for learning. Being in the lecture was the only way to prepare for exams and homework in that class. It was only in later years that the book
became available.
Although I never once participated in hissing any professor and found it as repulsive as Bose did, I strangely disagree with your position on
laptops. Since I don't take MIT classes now, it is no issue for me personally. But I absolutely assure you that I type much faster than anything else I do. Taking notes on a keyboard is a huge improvement over taking notes in handwriting.
If I were in any class you began by prohibiting electronic note taking, I would immediately walk out and never come back.
Joseph Patterson `66
PS: You could easily suppress email without any admonishment by bringing a room area wireless band noise source to your lectures. I recall reading about an MIT undergraduate who built a noise source to free herself from cell phone conversations on trains. Similar ingenuity ought not be beyond an MIT professor.
W. Mills Dyer,…
Fri, 10/29/2010 10:06am
The most interesting part of this article to me is that 7.01 requires a room as large as 26-100. When I took it in 1958 (then a sophomore subject), I'm sure there were less than 30 students. Of course there were only 13 biology graduates in 1960 and 14 in 1961.
George McQuilken
Thu, 10/28/2010 11:12am
Was that in our Freshman year?
Dave Chapman EE 67
Wed, 10/27/2010 11:42pm
I was there also. I recall some speculation that the hissing came from a steam radiator. Probably not. Doesn't matter. I considered it a sign of arrogance on the part of Prof Bose. To me it said that he was "above" us and that we needed to learn our place. That he demanded respect instead of earning it. That he didn't value any feedback from us or interaction with us. Nevertheless, I have always respected him, his teaching, and his accomplishments.
Anthony Pelosi
Wed, 10/27/2010 9:41pm
Patrick, you were my favorite and most memorable professor, so whatever Professor Bose taught you lived on in you own teachings! I still tell friends to eat chocolate before taking a test :)
John Murdock
Wed, 10/27/2010 9:04pm
One day in the ealy '60s I overslept. So I grabbed some food and took it to Professor Bose's class. He would not allow me to eat it during his class--but he did allow me to stay in class with the food sitting on the table in front of me.
John Murdock, ME '63, ScD '67
Richard Norwood
Wed, 10/27/2010 7:21pm
When I was a grad student at MIT,circa 1960,in an ME class, one student perpetually read a newspaper while the Prof lectured. The Prof (to be unnamed) never said a thing, but the student failed the course! I resolved I would never let that happen to me as a prof, so when it did I told the student to read his paper outside, and I never had a problem again.
Toni Stimmel VI'60
Wed, 10/27/2010 6:45pm
I don't remember any incident anything like this in any class I ever had. No one ever hissed either, groan maybe, but not hiss. Of course there were only 3 girls in my EE class.
mkt
Wed, 10/27/2010 5:53pm
"In those days, students often made a hissing noise, like a snake, whenever an instructor announced a quiz or told a particularly corny joke."
Wait ... do MIT students no longer hiss?
Ken Wong, EE '68
Wed, 10/27/2010 2:08pm
My details may be a little muddled with time, but I recall that in the fall '65 semester of 6.01, Professor Bose walked out after no one could answer any of the three questions he posed regarding the required reading. Even more surprising (and alarming) was that he didn't show up for the next lecture. We thought maybe he had an accident. So we sent our class leader to find out if he was OK. He returned and said that Professor Bose would not return until we promised that that wouldn't happen again.
When I tell this story to my students, I get a very nervous chuckle ... and at least one person always manages to provide an answer to questions at the beginning of the class!
Guillermo W. A…
Tue, 10/26/2010 12:58am
I was there!