"A strange thing happened while I was brushing my
teeth. This has become a more meditative time for me,
since I've switched to one of those Oral-B type
electric toothbrushes, and the work is reduced to a
pleasant mindlessness. Before Oral-B, I was worrying
all of the time about technique and missed teeth and
such.
I was thinking about this dance class that I am
taking, and how the instructor has an irritating habit
of beginning didactic moments by saying "For you
mathematicians out there..." and then proceeding to
say something that she seems to imagine is both (a)
mathematics in some way, and (b) of some instructional
value, dance-wise. I was thinking in particular of
her way of describing the rhythm associated with
particular dances as if each different one was part of
some cohesive whole, as if 3/4 time followed logically
from 4/4, or vice versa, and thinking how truly silly
this all was.
I was thinking that dance instructors ought to have
Plans B, C, and so on, for persons like me who don't
hear rhythm and certainly not while moving our feet in
unfamiliar prescribed fashion. I was thinking of my
own experiences teaching math, learning math, and then
(for reference, we have now moved to the bottom teeth)
was thinking of your Calculus course. There were many
happy thoughts about learning things, and many happy
thoughts about how many of the things I learned didn't
ripen until much later, say in the first quarter of
algebra or possibly analysis, though it's all a bit
fuzzy. One of your quizzes began with a quote from
someone who was describing the epiphanic moment when
all of the epsilons and deltas stopped dancing just
out of focus (metaphor mine, not his), and he became a
mathematician. I had no such moments, but many
smaller ones which were deeply satisfying in their own
way. Epiphanic moments, even small ones, are to be
treasured. You realize this more when you become a
lawyer. Epiphanic moments cease.
Anyway, this led me to wonder what had happened to
you, and thus to Google, and thus to your web page,
and thus to Natalia C.'s testimonial, which is
pretty much dead-on, if memory serves. I thought it
might please you to know that, even after many years.
And if it doesn't, don't worry, it pleases me."
-- J.J., a student of mine in, I believe, 1993-1994, 2004
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- "Debacker is very helpful if you go to his office hours. He's also very encouraging, even when he seems discouraged by how clueless we are during class."
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-- an anonymous UofM 295 (Honors Math I) student on RateMyProfessor.com, November, 2004.
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- "In Africa, they have a saying: 'The elephant can kill you, the leopard can kill you, and Stephen DeBacker can kill you. But only with Stephen DeBacker is death certain.'"
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-- an anonymous UofM 295 (Honors Math I) student, December, 2004.
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- "The dastardly devil Dr. DeBacker dared delve into the deepest depths and didn't dwindle while differentiating."
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-- an anonymous UofM 296 (Honors Math II) student, April, 2005.
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- "Great guy. Always did the joke per day, gave the class a nice break. He taught the topics well too. Although calc 3 isnt my favorite, I was more bearable thanks to stephen. My favorite joke was something about 'this is where fun comes to die'."
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-- an anonymous UofM 215 (Calculus III) student on
RateMyProfessor.com, September, 2005.
(Although it's probably a typo, I'll take credit for
improving this student's overall demeanor.)
-
- "Although your jokes were bad and your timing was awful, I really
enjoyed the class."
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-- an anonymous UofM 215 (Calculus III) student, December, 2005.
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- "Stephen taught Calc III.
Took me two tries to pass it.
But I'm finally done."
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-- haiku from an anonymous UofM 215 (Calculus III) student, April, 2006.
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- "Alliteration just for you: 'DeBacker did do that double integral
with dutiful dispatch didn't
he? Dare I say doing derivatives denotes delicious decadence to
the delightful domain of dastardly mathematics.'"
-
-- an anonymous UofM 215 (Calculus III) student, December, 2006.
-
- "This class was pretty chewed. The instructor did a good job
teaching the concepts but he was a little bit lurch, as were many
of the students in the class. If you don't know, now you know."
-
-- an anonymous UofM 215 (Calculus III) student, December,
2006.
(If you know what the above means, please e-mail your explanation
to me.)
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- "When you are deep into thought on the final exam, and you can[']t
remember how to find the volume of a solid: Don't fret. It[']s simply
the triple integral over the region of the number one. You know,
the number one, like the total number of different shirts
professor Debacker has worn to lecture this year. With that said,
he is still amazing. GO BLUE."
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-- an anonymous UofM 215 (Calculus III) student on RateMyProfessor.com, April,
2007.
(In my defense: I wear a clean shirt each day. As of this
writing, I
have 23 UM math shirts in 4 different
styles.)
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- "Great lecturer, funny, interesting, good math, great exam prep.
But you don't have to be a d*** about it. Be a little nicer and
caring."
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-- an anonymous UofM 215 (Calculus III) student, April, 2007.
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- "The meticulous material pleasantly presented in this cantankerous
class was devilishly difficult, but the dedicated and derisive
DeBacker adventurously attempted to informatively instruct with
strategically surprising success despite dense students."
-
-- an anonymous UofM 215 (Calculus III) student, April, 2007.
-
- "would you chill out? noone's out to get you. you need to jump
down everyone's throat all the time"
-
-- an e-mail from a UofM 215 (Calculus III) student, September,
2007.
(The above e-mail was sent in response to
an e-mail I had sent to the 800 or so students of 215 in which I
rather politely (in my opinion) restated a change in due dates that
had perplexed about 100 of the students (some of whom did not
realize that the current year is 2007). I will decline the offer to
jump down peoples' throats. I am pretty sure that the student is
correct about
Noone. Note to students: This is
an example of how not to address your professors; you should at
least use correct punctuation and spelling.)
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- "There once was a mad math'matician;
Who made killing freshmen his mission;
- 'My plot can't misfire,'
said the wicked old liar:
'I'll bore them by proving addition.'"
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-- limerick from an anonymous UofM 295 (Honors Math I) student on RateMyProfessor.com, December, 2007.
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"Debacker is incredible, really helpful, and not quite as scary as he seems at first. Great lecturer, and really enthusiastic. 295, on the other hand, is only for the crazy. If you do well in it, you will end up in love with mathematics, but it requires a large commitment and is very fast-paced. So consider carefully if that's what you want."
-- an anonymous UofM 295 (Honors Math I) student on RateMyProfessor.com, December, 2007.
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- "There once was a coordinator for 215;
Who students would think was quite mean;
- Over his exams they would stew;
But if only they knew:
His true passion was to keep the primes clean (and neat)."
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-- C.B., 2007.
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- "... I appreciate the hard work you've made us do. Even if I was
thinking 'When will joke time come?' at some points, I knew being in
your class was time well spent."
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-- B.M., 2007.
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- It is not quite a testimonial, but I find the discussion of my
sartorial habits at
umgoblue.com to be entertaining.
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- "This class is responsible for my interest in mathematics.
Before, I thought math was nice but not necessarily something I
wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. Now I have an identity
crisis on what I want to do because I've realized how incredibly
cool mathematics is.
Also, I only took this class b/c Debacker bullied me into it, and
said other math classes were for engineers, but now I'm really
glad I took it."
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-- an anonymous UofM 295 (Honors Math I) student, December, 2007.
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- "For assuming that one is not equal to zero, DeBacker will always
be my hero."
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-- an anonymous UofM 295 (Honors Math I) student, December, 2007.
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- "When Dante said 'E 'n la sua volontade é
nostra pace' (his will
is our peace) he wasn't talking about Prof. DeBacker. But then
again, that's not a quote from [The] Inferno."
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-- an anonymous UofM 295 (Honors Math I) student, December, 2007.
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- "Dr. DeBacker's height is immense and unquestionable. Because of this, his students and coworkers suffer from abnormally high rates of chronic neck pain due to the neck-angle necessary to make eye contact. Dr. DeBacker is known to use his height for malicious purposes, including hiding pieces of chalk on the tops of blackboards with the intention of depriving more vertically-challenged faculty of them."
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-- an anonymous UofM 296 (Honors Math II) student, April, 2008.
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- "Professor DeBacker is very strange, but I love his classes and I learned more than I ever thought possible. ... Everything is freaking hard, but DeBacker's chuffed and irreverent visage helped us grin and bear it. I wish Prof. DeBacker got more sleep. The only thing worse than his blackboard-obscuring height are his irresponsible sleeping habits."
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-- an anonymous UofM 296 (Honors Math II) student, April, 2008.
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- "Every day in this class I felt like I was being dragged by a
small string attached on the other side to a truck going about
150mph. I felt sure the string broke every day, but somehow I
still ended up at the destination at the end."
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-- an anonymous UofM 296 (Honors Math II) student, April, 2008.
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- "Mr. M was a math slacker.
He ran into Professor DeBacker.
A kick in the back,
296 made him crack,
Now Mr. M is a math master!
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-- Mr. M, April, 2008.