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Mediated Learning NewsletterVol. 5, Issue 2: November 2005, pg. 2Kerr Lives Many Lives in Anthropology 101Johnny W. Lott, Director Are culture and anthropology a part of most everything? Garry Kerr talks about the computer and culture, the brain and culture, food and culture, and sex and culture in Anthropology 101, Introduction to Anthropology. As he says, most ideas paired with culture provide good fodder for the class. He mentions, diapers are necessities for young children in America, but in China diapers are unheard of because they would waste valuable resources. Kerr says that such cultural dilemmas interest students. In examining them, students see that no culture is better or worse than another.
One can feel Garry Kerr’s enthusiasm for subject matter. Mr. Kerr talks about living a better life by knowing more from his travels around the world and from working in different places. He shows students the value of experiencing different things, places and people. He encourages students to experience another culture for a time. It could be as simple as going to any different place in the US to get a subculture experience. Kerr had a subculture experience by moving from Ithaca, New York and Cornell to Montana. With family Montana roots before he came to school here, Garry says that his mother was born in Paris but at the age of two, his grandparents moved with her to Ovando. She grew up there and told him tales of having a deer named Bambi, of 100 female elk crossing a fence and then having a bull elk bugle to entice 99 of them back across the fence to go with him. With a Cornell family tie and a professor’s advice about a good program in Missoula at the University of Montana, Kerr came west. While flying in, he saw Missoula and loved the wide valley. He came to campus, met Dr. Charlene Smith, loved her, and the rest is truly a subculture experience. How does one go from Ithaca, New York, and hotel management to this campus and teaching 450 students in a class? Dr. Smith got Kerr to teach classes for her when she had an accident. Also in the course of working on the Masters, Kerr taught with and for several people. Each experience along the way was good. Dr. Smith convinced him that teaching was his forte and that it should become his life-long goal. Garry said that he came here to get an education, took lots of courses, loved studying, and enjoyed each new field he studied. He got a degree for his mother’s sake but says that UM penalizes students by forcing them to take a limited number of classes. He did not want to graduate but wanted to keep taking courses of interest. He believes that each course he took made him a better teacher. He was finally forced to graduate from a master’s program at the end of seven years. In retrospect, having to graduate was a good thing and makes him glad because it is the reason that he gets to do what he is doing now—lecturing in the Department of Anthropology. Kerr found that he could work with 450 students in Anthropology 101 and keep their attention. For the classes, he mentions keeping students’ attention by entertaining them and doing this while teaching the material. It is daunting work, and he brings his dogs, an occasional chimpanzee, and his grandmother’s ashes to help him teach. Though the class is huge and he has only one teaching assistant, he tries to accommodate students and their needs. He says, “Classes are a small part of students’ lives. Many of our students are non-traditional; they have major events in their lives, more major than my class. I will accommodate them where possible.” To that end he has given exams in jail and in the hospital. He encourages students to come and talk to him in the office and to see him at Farmers Market where he is a vendor. He tries to let students know him as a person and see some of his many lives: teacher, vendor, dog exhibitor, and world traveler. Kerr uses his worst and best moments in real life as teaching strategies. One example came from a Fiji experience. In Fiji, Kerr was being honored by an elder. As an honored dinner guest, Kerr was the first to take food; he scooped up food normally with his left hand and people were aghast at what he had done. All villagers thought that he had contaminated the food with feces. The custom was to use only the right hand to take food. Kerr says the elder had to reeducate him and the village because of his left handedness. The elder explained to the villagers that Kerr was an ignorant child whose parents had not properly taught him. As an ignorant child, Kerr was given status, and the villagers taught him. By using mistakes to teach students, he shows that students can learn from their errors and the culture of others. When asked what teaching advice he might give to other faculty members, he mentions the following:
From preparing hands-on materials for his classes, to being enthusiastic about his subject, it is clear that Garry is a proponent of the philosophy he espouses:
Kerr exudes what he believes. “We need to know people unlike us; we need to know and appreciate older people, we need to allow our students to be more worldly wise. We need to push them out.” He says, “By doing this [pushing them out] we let students put on more overcoats. Each experience or coat gives them something else to wear and a new role to play. It helps prepare them for life.” Garry Kerr is an example of one who is providing overcoats for students.
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