Published: January 12, 2009 12:44 am         

Beyond the call

Fairmont State’s Fitch takes teaching role seriously

FAIRMONT — Professor John Fitch of Fairmont State has dedicated almost 40 years of his life to teaching students there.

He enjoys a good relationship with his students and wants to see them succeed.

And the sociology professor admits he enjoys instructing at the college level. He is at Fairmont State by choice.

“I’m happy for the teachers who are happy teaching grades K-12. You need good people doing that,” he said. “But myself, that’s not my interest.

“I really prefer the older, upper-division students. Usually, the upper-traditional students are more serious. They’ve gotten out into the world.”

But he enjoys them all. And he apparently has gone beyond the call of duty to make sure some of them have passed his course.

That’s why he has been named a Marion County “Everyday Hero.”



Syracuse native

Fitch grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and attended college there, getting his bachelor’s and his master’s degree. He also started work toward his doctorate.

“I was one of those ‘abd’ students,” he said, “who had their bachelor’s and 30 hours past it, but somehow never got their dissertation completed.” The “abd” stands for “all but dissertation.”

He taught summer classes at Syracuse and filled in at Lafayette University, and then came to Fairmont in 1970.

“A bunch of us came in here in 1970. There were a number of people coming and going then,” he said.



Concern for students

Fitch shows a strong concern for his students.

“I like the old image of an instructor at the end of a log and students at the other end, and they’re trying to have a seminar,” he said.

“Or the image of the craftsmen helping the junior apprentice who might someday replace him ... to give him some techniques to be a junior craftsmen that you’re trying to get into your guild and help grow him.

“Sometimes I use the analogy that you could listen to a lot of music composed by people and become very knowledgeable about identifying famous composers.

“But I also think it’s also important to go see someone like (FSU professor) John Schooley and learn how to play a trombone. This gives you an appreciation of people trying to put things together.”

Fitch knows the problems of students and tries to ease those problems.

“I have spent a lot of time with students outside of class,” he said. “They would bring in their own particular questions that they were embarrassed to ask in class.

“I would actually have a section with an introduction and then ask for general class-type questions. I didn’t want them to feel embarrassed about asking questions.

“I did that as an undergraduate student. I know there were questions I was embarrassed to ask so I get that from my own experience.”

Fitch said that by using this process, a teacher gets to talk to a lot of students with a lot of individual situations, involving a bunch of extra time.



Doesn’t like failure

Does Fitch believe he has failed when he has a student fail?

“Personally, I don’t like to see any of them fail,” he said. “If they’re not doing well, you see if they have contacted you. Do they get the projects finished? Or I may send e-mails to students I haven’t run into. Usually, it is not a problem of telling them. The problem is getting them organized.

“Sometimes they have trouble getting to school or they have to juggle their cars with their wives or husbands. These are definitely their problems. They are not my problems. But a lot of times you can talk with them about solving their problems.”

He said recently he questioned why a number of students from Salem and Clarksburg were not getting their work done.

“They do well in class, but don’t do well out of class,” he noted. “They say it’s tough to come back to Fairmont just to go to the library. I say, ‘OK but the Caperton Center in Clarksburg has computers, and they could get their homework done in the library there.’ I had a number who did better last semester because they did use the facilities there.

“That is not an intellectual issue,” he said. “It’s an organizational kind of thing.”

He admits that e-mail has changed teaching, but believes “you need that personal contact — to see them in class and talk with them as people.”

“If they are doing well, they should get credit. If not, they shouldn’t. But you try to do as much as you can to have them do well.”

He gave the example of a time a few years ago when he called a student’s mother in Vermont to tell her that her son hadn’t been coming to class.

“The student came in the next day and was upset. He said I had no business calling his mother about his attendance. And he was right. But he had not given us his alternative home phone number to call. ... He acknowledged his part of the problem and said that he would attend better and would include his local phone number. ... His attendance after that did improve, and he ended up passing the course instead of failing, as he had been doing.”



Family praised

Fitch credits his family for their support.

“Without the support and sacrifice of my wife Catherine and our three children, Bethany, Sara and Joshua, I could not have had the quality time to spend in my classes for my students.

“It is seemingly without number the after-school times my children would come and hang out at the college while their dad taught a later course or stayed later to help some students.

“And likewise, I was forever calling my wife and telling her that again I would be late for dinner or need dinner early because of something happening (at the college).”

He said “in addition, many of our holidays and weekends were planned around me being at the office. They were silent but active supporters of me helping students here.”

Fitch teaches a course in sociology of a family, one on minority groups, one on non-parametric statistics and one on methods of social research.

Fitch says back in his graduate school days, he had many part-time jobs.

“When I would do my school work, I would say I’m tired of this. But when I would go to my part-time job, I would say I don’t want to do this all my life.”

He says the non-traditional students have experienced the “outside world and what it’s like. They’ve been out there and experienced different jobs. They’ve had lower salaries and bad hours. They get some immediate reality. And they think this could be your life for the next 30 years. So the non-traditional students know why they are (in school).”

He sees the traditional students being fortunate as well. “They get a jump on everyone else and can simply focus on their school work,” he said.

“But the non-traditional students have to find time for their families or outside jobs — things like that.

“I always found studying was time consuming. Non-traditional students don’t have all this time. It’s admirable they are working and trying to get through, but the traditional student has more potential advantage of being more rested.”



Why does he teach?

“I really like learning. I used to listen to all the speakers they would bring into speak at Syracuse,” he said. “When I was in grad school there, they had stacks, and the faculty or selected graduate students sometimes would have a desk there. I remember getting one of those desks and thought that was one of the highlights of my graduate experience.

“I really liked that. And I got to meet and know many faculty members. I just thought that was fascinating that you would get paid for learning and for teaching others.”

He appreciated the fact the faculty members at Syracuse would take time, “to know me and to help me. I found that a wonderful growth experience.”

Fitch spoke of a very beneficiary graduate program.

“At grad school, we spent three months one summer in a Young Adults Survey Project. Many of the faculty members got involved. Basically, we spent three months going through the research project. It was a fantastic learning experience.

“We gathered information on all the graduates of the last five years. When I was working with the faculty members and trying to interview all these people, that was a tremendous educational experience. ... And this taught me how to do well as a junior colleague. That was so meaningful to me in many ways, and I try to do that in my classes.”

E-mail John Veasey at jcveasey@timeswv.com.

     

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