Story Time With Uncle Joe

“The department chairman asked me what I wanted as a retirement gift so I told him I wanted an iPod,” says Education and Human Services (EHS) Professor Joseph McCarthy in reference to his sell-out Popular Songs seminar.

Education and Human Services Professor Joseph McCarthy

McCarthy, who retired in 2007, first came to Suffolk in the early 70s and has taught in both the EHS and History departments. Had he been an Oxford don in the 19th century, he would probably have been classified as a generalist. Then again, this would be an atypical Oxford don with his blue jeans, sneakers and Claddaugh earring.

McCarthy’s teaching career at Suffolk has moved from one area of interest to another. He created the university’s master’s degree program in Higher Education Administration, advised graduate students, taught freshmen, encouraged young history majors in their baccalaureate pursuits, and taught courses about World War II, medieval popular culture and the theory and practice of history.

“I always marvel at Joe,” says Dean Kenneth Greenberg. “He is such a great scholar who knows so many of these different ways of learning and knowledge. It’s remarkable.”

McCarthy taught his students that the worker, the scholar or the professional should have an unfettered intellectual curiosity. From the first day of a new course, he would say that his course would not be a pedantic regurgitation of names, facts and half-baked analysis, just “story time with your Uncle Joe.”

In the words of an old 70s soul song, there ain’t no stopping McCarthy now, because he’s on the move. On the South Shore of Massachusetts, he presides over a bit of the old agrarian Massachusetts where he splits logs and raises chickens that have claimed the blue ribbon at the annual Marshfield Fair for two years running, all the time looking after his grandchildren.

McCarthy will continue to teach and informally advise at Suffolk. He is a living connection to Suffolk’s days as that small upstart Beacon Hill institution educating commuter students. No matter what course he teaches, the fundamental lesson will always be the same: never lie about facts and never be afraid of ideas.

Ford Hall Forum Comes Home

Ford Hall Forum, celebrating a century of public dialogue and free speech, has established a new partnership with the Suffolk University College of Arts & Sciences. The lecture series’ administrative offices in the John E. Fenton Building are just one block from where the original Ford Hall (below) once stood.

The Forum is now the nation’s oldest free public lecture series. It began in 1908 as a series of Sunday evening public meetings hosted by George W. Coleman, a prominent Boston businessman, to provide the “full, free, and open discussion of all vital questions affecting human welfare.”

Since Coleman’s time, the Forum has gone on to host discussions with the most intriguing figures in our nation’s modern history, including Maya Angelou, Louis Brandeis, W.E.B. DuBois, Al Gore, Garrison Keillor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry Kissinger, Ayn Rand, Eleanor Roosevelt, Cokie Roberts, and Malcolm X. While the original Ford Hall no longer exists, the Forum’s public conversations have continued throughout Greater Boston with the support of foundations, corporations, academic institutions, and individuals.

Suffolk University, which also just celebrated its centennial, is providing the Forum with the opportunity to “come home” not only to Beacon Hill but also into an academic environment that shares a similar spirit and history of accessible education and civic dialogue. “Both organizations were born in the Progressive Era, and both have a commitment to free speech and interactive learning,” says Dean Kenneth Greenberg. “We are eager for our community to engage in the excitement of live, public discourse that is the heart of the Ford Hall Forum events.”

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, is scheduled to kick off the Forum’s fall 2008 season in September. Future speakers include Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farms and author of Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World, and Gwen Ifill, host of PBS’ Washington Week in Review. See the Ford Hall Forum ad on page 13 for the complete season line-up.

For more information, visit www.fordhallforum.org or contact Alex Minier at 617-557-2007.

Teaching & Mentoring: The 1-2 Punch

From the Civil War through the 1920s, Brockton, Massachusetts thrived as one of the world’s premier shoe manufacturing centers. By the 1950s, the hardscrabble city 30 miles south of Boston claimed bragging rights as the birthplace of undefeated heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano. Twenty years later, when Marvelous Marvin Hagler entered the ring, the city added a middleweight champion to its scorecard.

Today, though the fight motif is still in full swing around the “City of Champions,” Brockton’s greatest boast is probably its high school—the largest in New England. A beige colossus flanking the road behind the Rocky Marciano Stadium, Brockton High School houses 4,358 students and a faculty of 331 women and men. Among these educators is history teacher Gregory Hazelwood BA ‘98.

Brockton High School history teacher Greg Hazelwood leads students in a warm up for Black History Month presentations with the song, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," also known as the "Negro National Anthem." "It's a very positive song. Some students know the first stanza, some know all the lyrics."

“I wish every kid in the school could have Mr. Hazelwood as a teacher during their career here,” says Brockton High School principal Dr. Susan Szachowicz. “He brings history to life. But the most important lessons he teaches are about character, how to treat other people. Greg uses every moment as a teachable moment.”

“Good afternoon!” Mr. Hazelwood greets the students heartily as they file into class. “Today we’re going to name stereotypes and we’re going to talk about how to counteract them.” Read more