Men Who Teach; 2; Norman Jacobson
- Series
- Men Who Teach
- Episode Number
- 2
- Episode
- Norman Jacobson
- Producing Organization
- National Educational Television and Radio Center
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/516-h12v40kw62
- NOLA Code
- MNWT
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- Description
- Episode Description
- Normal Jacobson, political science professor at the University of California in Berkeley since 1965, no longer lectures to the masses in a huge lecture hall. Instead, he encourages students in his small seminars to relate ideas generated in these sessions to their lives and personalities. Depicted in this film is a typical seminar, during which Jacobson and his students struggle with the philosophical and psychological aspects of freedom and authority. The students indicate, through their own experiences, the conflict between the two abstractions. At the outset, the students inadvertently introduced the question of authority figure when they constantly refer to Jacobson in the third person (he, him, the professor, etc.) as if he were not there. Asked why, two students say they have been taught to respect their teachers and other elders, another says simply that he holds Professor Jacobson in awe, and a fourth admits he had not thought about it at all. From time to time during this first meeting, the film breaks away for an interview with author Eric Hoffer, a long-time friend of Jacobsons Whatever it is, says Hoffer, that makes Norman so effective a teacher is hard to put into words. Perhaps, he says with a smile, it can be captured on camera. Continuing, Hoffer says that with Jacobson ideas are light and pleasant things which dance. Hoffer attributes Jacobsons capacity for intellectual growth to his great credulity. This enables Jacobson, he says, to listen open-mindedly to thoughts expressed by others. Hoffer notes, too, Jacobsons ability to make easy associations between literature and political theory. One good example is the recurrence throughout the film of the Grand Inquisitor theme. Reasoning that decision-making (freedom) for man involves much suffering, the inquisitor, who is referred to in a segment of Dostoevskys The Brothers Karamazov, volunteers to relieve man of this responsibility, if man decides to delegate management of his affairs to such an authority figure, says Jacobson in a quotation from novelist Franz Kafka, it may be the last decision he will make. At one point during the filming of one of Jacobsons seminars, students rebel against the cameras, charging that they are symbols of the establishment system. Frustrated, they say the cameras increase their political and social impotence by filming what they say and molding it to present the establishment view of their generation. When Jacobson asks What if the mic is a dummy, and there is no film in the camera, the students reply, paradoxically enough, that then the most potentially effective act they performed today was for naught. Illustrating Jacobsons thesis regarding the relationship of thought to action, a group of professors are shown defending the right of draft-eligible young men to determine whether it is morally right to resist or to heed the draft call. Jacobson points out that when we are ready to relate thought to action, this does not necessarily mean that the world will stand still to listen. This relationship of the one to the other, he says, is an intensely personal act. Background Norman Jacobson, professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. A native New Yorker, Jacobson attended Brooklyns St. Johns University and was graduated from Holy Cross (Worcester, MA) in 1944. He received a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in 1951, the year he started at Berkeley as an instructor. He became a full professor in 1965. Jacobson has also taught at Mills College, San Francisco State, and the University of Wisconsin. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow during 1954-55, and a Rockefeller Fellow during 1957-61. Jacobson helped conceive and produce Bertold Brechts play The Measures Taken and the US premiere of Brechts oratorio, Firmer of War. Men Who Teach: Norman Jacobson is a National Educational Television production. Men Who Teaches was made possible by a grant from the Celanese Corporation. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Series Description
- A series of hour-long documentary episodes about the nations master teachers produced by National Educational Television. Called Men Who Teach, the series was made possible by a $250,000 grant from the Celanese Corporation. In a joint announcement by John F. White, president of NET, and John W. Brooks, president of Celanese, the series was characterized as a distinguished and dramatic portrait of the role of the university teacher in America. Mr. White said: Industry has a tremendous stake in education and, I am convinced, in educational television. We are grateful to Celanese for this opportunity to forge another link between business, NET, and the academic world, allowing the television audience to encounter the personality and to sense the dedication of some of our great university teachers. Mr. Brooks observed that Contrary to the beliefs of many young people today, there is not very much difference between the goals or the methods of scientist in the universities and those in private industry. Celanese intends this series to be a tribute to the many inspired teachers who set the standards of academic excellence in the US and contribute so much to the quality of our culture. We believe NET is the logical showcase for this distinguished and dramatic portrait of great teaching, Mr. Brooks continued. Educational or public television is essential as a medium for those important messages which may be too specialized for the format and cost structure of commercial TV. Men Who Teach is such a message, and Celanese is proud to be associated with it. Each episode deals with a different university or college teacher selected on the basis of extensive research among a representative cross-section of institutions throughout the United States. Time Inc., and the Danforth Foundation have made available to NET their continuing research, undertaken by Time magazine for its April 1967 cover story about teachers and by Danforth in its Harbison Awards program for distinguished teachers. Subjects selected include Gerald Holton, professor of physics, Harvard University, Norman Jacobson, professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley; Lloyd Reynolds, art historian and calligrapher at Reed College in Portland, OR; Abraham Kaplan, professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan; Howard Mitchell, professor of urbanism and human resource at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Universitys Human Resources Programs; and William Geer, professor of English at the University of North Carolina. Each episode takes the audience into the classrooms and laboratories with the teacher, showing him at work and providing insights into his views about the process of education. The cameras also visit the teachers home, and seek out the reaction of his students in dormitory bull sessions. The 5 episodes that comprise this series were originally recorded on film and distributed on videotape. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Broadcast Date
- 1968-04-23
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Documentary
- Topics
- Education
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Associate Producer: Bernstein, Penny
Director: Kaufman, Paul A.
Interviewee: Hoffer, Eric
Narrator: Park, Ben
Producer: Kaufman, Paul A.
Producing Organization: National Educational Television and Radio Center
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Men Who Teach; 2; Norman Jacobson,” 1968-04-23, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 2, 2026, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-h12v40kw62.
- MLA: “Men Who Teach; 2; Norman Jacobson.” 1968-04-23. American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. April 2, 2026. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-h12v40kw62>.
- APA: Men Who Teach; 2; Norman Jacobson. Boston, MA: American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-h12v40kw62