What a Difference Professor Beebe Makes

Abstract

I first met Professor Beebe while attending the Teachers College, Columbia University, Tokyo Program. I was pursuing an MA in TESOL while teaching English full-time at a Japanese secondary school. One day, I overheard classmates gossiping about a professor from New York who was scheduled to teach the following semester. One student who claimed to have friends in the New York program warned that she was “extremely tough,” “super-strict,” and “slaughters you if you are not good enough.” I visualized this fearsome lady as an old scholar with thick glasses and penetrating eyes. Needless to say, we were positively frightened.