Norman Eugene Dunlap

West Point, 1951

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by John Booth on May 11, 2021:

Norman was an instructor of undergraduate German at the University of Maryland University College, European Division from approximately 1970-1975. He was my German instructor for 4 semesters in Heidelberg, Germany. An excellent teacher, Norman had high standards as an instructor, but was very patient in his mentoring of learning: I recall a class session where we were to construct short sentences in German which used the past tense. A female student kept placing verbs in the wrong place; instead of saying "Ich habe das Buch gelesen" (meaning "I read the book") she would say "Ich habe gelesen das Buch." She kept trying to place German verbs in the same general position that their English equivalents would be. She was speaking German with her feeling for English. Instead of ignoring her usage error (which he tried to correct several times) by quickly tasking the next student in this pedagogical exercise (which would have probably saved some nerves!), he stayed with her - patiently - until she was speaking sentences correctly. This took several minutes, resulting in two outcomes: first, the student learned a lesson in grammar (that would probably stick for a long time!); the class also learned from his model behavior that one did not have to fear learning German in his class, for he did not admonish her, or show displeasure. He just led her to the right solution, patiently, but with the expectation that she would follow through. Many in the class had a high regard of Norman's ability as an instructor. He expected that one did one's best in learning the language. Norman even presented small skits in class with his wife Maria acting as a discussion partner. We students were to follow their (German) discussion - the end of which we were asked questions about what was said, and the gist of their interaction. I, for one, never worked as hard for any class (other than math) than I did in his courses. They were, however, a solid platform for my subsequent graduate studies in clinical psychology at a German university. And as a side benefit, I ended up having a newly acquired appreciation of German literature. As one can say, Norman was a gentleman and scholar.

admin