|
McDowell looks back across three generations of students
By Amy Hall
|
|
|
McDowell
|
|
When Gene McDowell began his college career in 1957, he probably never imagined that he would linger in university classrooms for the next four decades.
McDowell retired in December after teaching college students for the last 41 years – 37 of which were spent in Western Carolina University’s psychology department.
What began as an interest in the human condition became a lifelong journey for McDowell after he received his undergraduate degree in psychology in 1961 from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
McDowell, who grew up in Greensboro, first entertained the idea of a college career after Carolina’s basketball team won a national championship in 1957.
“I heard that the Chapel Hill basketball team had won, and I thought that UNC would be a college I would like to go to,” McDowell said.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree, McDowell earned a master’s in experimental psychology from Indiana’s DePauw University in 1963. He returned to Chapel Hill, where he received his doctorate in 1965.
According to McDowell, college life is a bit different today than when he was a student.
“Going to college when I did was remarkably easy,” said McDowell. “When I decided to attend UNC, I went into the student aid office and told them I wanted to go to school, but I had no money. So they gave me a tuition scholarship.”
After that, everything else fell into place for McDowell. Once he had his tuition worked out, he realized that he needed money for books and meals.
“The student aid office sent me to a cafeteria downtown,” said McDowell. “A lady there gave me a job, and I worked for my food. When I realized I didn’t have money for books, I got a job as a dormitory laundry agent. I earned about $50 a week.”
When McDowell entered college, tuition was $147 a semester. Today students at UNC-CH pay more than $1,700 in tuition per semester.
During his teaching career, McDowell has had the opportunity to work with three generations of students.
Being a psychologist, McDowell is not only able to describe these three generations, but he is able to accurately label each one because he has done extensive research on generational differences.
“The three groups of students I’ve taught include the “Silent Generation,” the “Baby Boomers,” and the “Thirteenth Generation,” which is also referred to as Generation X,” he said.
McDowell himself was part of the first generation he taught, which is referred to as the “Silent Generation” because they were small in numbers and were the least rebellious of all generations of the 20th century.
It’s a bit strange to think of a professor being a part of the generation he’s teaching. Perhaps the reason behind this lies in the goal-oriented mindsets of the Silent Generation.
“The adolescents of this time were extremely polite because they were afraid to misbehave,” said McDowell. “We wanted to become adults so fast because the adults got to do things we couldn’t.”
The next group of students McDowell taught were the Baby Boomers of the 1960s and 1970s, who were the polar opposite of his own Silent Generation.
“I’d been teaching the most polite kids when I began my career,” said McDowell, “and then came the Baby Boomers with their long hair and their grungy clothes. These were the first kids that questioned what I said. They took nothing as gospel truth. But they made me a better teacher.”
Of the last student generation he had the opportunity to teach, Generation X, McDowell explained that these were the kids that changed the way the college classroom functioned.
“Statistically, half of these students were products of divorced parents,” said McDowell, “and this is one of the biggest influences of the generation. They’re hard to impress. They pressed college professors to become better teachers, because they didn’t want to sit in a classroom for a couple of hours and listen to a lecture – they wanted hands-on experience. This directly led to changing the way classes were conducted.
“These students will bring down the divorce rate by getting married later in life. So for all the wrong reasons, this generation will turn out good.”
McDowell’s observation skills are seasoned and well-honed. He can explain the most complicated idea with ease, allowing his students and laypersons to absorb the full spectrum of his knowledge.
Aside from what he and his students have taught one another, McDowell has taught himself quite a few things. Some of his research interests are age-related behavior, death and dying, gender-oriented grief, and suicide.
His publications include a book called “Suicide Across the Lifespan: Premature Exits” and numerous articles about gender and grief and death and dying. Much of McDowell’s research has been conducted with colleague Judith Stillion, also a former WCU psychology professor.
Now that he’s retired, McDowell plans on traveling extensively. Last summer he and his wife visited England and Scotland, and they have a June trip planned when they will tour Switzerland and Paris.
|
