Lessons learned from 45 years teaching college history

The professor put a simple question to his students: Define gravy.

One student started talking about the brown stuff, put on chicken or turkey.

"Somebody got up — literally stood up — and said, 'You're an idiot! Are you kidding me? Gravy is red.' And he started getting really upset," recalled Theodore Barthold, 75, the Camden County College history professor who sparked the classroom argument.

It was exactly what Barthold wanted. How better to teach about World War II and the role of ethnic identities and cultural heritages?

"So you understand how ethnic nationalism really is such a feeling," Barthold recalls telling his students that day. "That's the first thing you have to understand: It is a feeling, and feelings are not always rational."

It was a lightbulb moment, one of many Barthold, the longtime chair of the college's history, philosophy, and political science department, remembers proudly as he prepares to retire this summer after 45 years.

Almost everything has changed in some way since Barthold first joined Camden County College in 1972: The physical campus, the students in the room, the technology used, the actual scope of the history taught. What hasn't changed is the importance of those moments of insight. When the professor engages students in a personal, direct way to make the material really click — that's always been the goal.

Barthold had no idea he'd be pursuing those moments for four decades. The school, founded just five years before he joined it, was figuring out its role in a rapidly changing higher education landscape. The very concept of community colleges was evolving; 15 of New Jersey's 19 community colleges were founded in the decade from 1964 to 1974.

"We were in danger of losing our jobs for several years," said Jack Pesda, a history professor who joined Camden County College in 1972,  the same year as Barthold. "We had to hustle for years to encourage students to take history, lest we end up as adjuncts somewhere or maybe asking people if they'd like to add fries to their orders."

Barthold had joined the college after several years teaching in public schools and then receiving his Ph.D. from Temple University. While pursuing his doctorate, the job market worsened, and he at first had trouble finding a job. He took the offer from Camden County College because he needed it.

But as he began teaching, and seeing the role of the college develop, he stuck around, year after year.

"When I started, not everybody went to college. That just wasn't the way it was. And the ones that especially knew they shouldn't go to college were girls, women," Barthold said.

"And they took a course here, figuring, 'Well, I'll try it,' and they got an A, which was really a surprise. And so they signed up for another one and got an A, and then they signed up for a third one and got an A, and all of a sudden they started to think, 'Well, maybe I'm not so dumb after all.' "

Suddenly, these women — whom parents and teachers had told were dumb, or not destined for college — were taking full course loads and going on to four-year colleges, Barthold said.

"That's something that couldn't have happened if community colleges didn't exist," he said.

As the role of college grew in society and the student body diversified, so did the curriculum. At first, the history professors had four main courses: Western Civilization I and II and U.S. History I and II. Then they began seeing a shift at other schools and hearing feedback from students. As one black student asked: "How come you don't talk about the brothers?"

Western Civilization I and II became World Civilization I and II.

"That was a fair point, because what I love about history is that it really explains how we got to be where we are today, how did the world get to be where it is?" Barthold said.

The college has grown over the decades — enrollment was just a few thousand when Barthold joined and peaked a few years ago at nearly 16,000 students — and technology has evolved quickly as well. Today, students bring laptops and phones into the classroom; PowerPoint presentations have replaced transparency slides, and digital maps supplanted bulky pull-down ones on walls.

Barthold's teaching style has changed, too, to better help the students. Students used to pay more attention and could sit through an entire lecture, he said, even though he did like to walk around and interact with them.

Now, he has no choice.

"They don't pay as much attention as they used to. They're good for 15 to 20 minutes and then you've got to do something," he said.

Barthold likes to ask questions of the students, have them help define terms and identify causes and effects of major events. "They have to be involved if they're going to understand what's going on," he said. "If they just sit there passively, it's not going to happen."

Still, Barthold said, the fundamentals are the same. For example, college has always been a transition for students, so he continues to work to socialize them and help them understand note-taking, time management, and study skills.

That's the job. The students, the technology, the classroom can change, but it's still about those lightbulb moments — when a teacher makes history real for the student, when a student connects with the material for the first time.

"You've got to love what you're doing, you've got to be curious," Barthold said. "You've got to be patient with your students but also firm in that you want to be sure they understand what the rules are."

"For me," he said, "teaching history was work but it was also a joy."