FOR YOU THE FLAG IS FLUNG

Two weeks ago, my professor treated me and eight other students to dinner at an excellent Cantonese restaurant that I now recommend highly if you are looking for brilliant Chinese food in Los Angeles. The special occasion in question? We'd all scored within the top 20% on the midterm exam. Since Professor Tong grades on a curve and is reputed as one of the best and worst teachers in UCLA, I consider this no small feat.

I am currently finishing up the last of the three undergraduate courses he offers, and I am a big fan of his Socratic pedagogy. It makes a lecture of seventy-odd students feel like a close-knit community, and that is not easy for a school where lower-division lectures of 200+ students is common. The school is notorious for being impersonal and a place where some introverts have serious trouble making friends (as a deeply committed extrovert, even I find socializing outside my friend group a bit challenging at times).

At UCLA's anonymous professor-reviewing site, Bruinwalk.com, he either receives glowing or scathing reviews:

Dr.Tong is THE professor for my life! How I wish there is an option in the evaluation for the best UCLA professor among all. He is knowledgeable and amiable; he is a master and a mentor. He brings knowledge as well as weltanschauung. He’s analysis about China is all-dimensional, multi-perspective. I not only learn the knowledge of China’s politics, history, geography and society from his class, but also the logic of analysis, the philosophy of life, the comprehension of the world. The most precious thing is that he is full of humanistic solicitude. From him, I have learned what a highly cultivated humanist is. He remembers everyone’s name in the lecture room; he grade the exams and papers all by himself; he even brings medicine for sick students. All what he does inspire me to be more diligent, more lenient and more thoughtful person. I really want to thank Dr. Tong for his education and I will take all the classes he offers in UCLA in the following quarters.
Worst political science class I have ever taken at UCLA. Worst lecturer as well. I don’t usually write reviews in Bruinwalk but I took the effort to do it just to make sure that everyone is well informed. Dont take him if you like political science and wants to have a knowledgeable professor teaching you.

Of course, I am in the former camp, having benefited immensely from Professor Tong's mentorship and guidance since I started my first class with him this past spring quarter. He's taken time out of his weekends to meet with me to help me figure out my career ambitions, talked with me about my life, and generally been a professor that I enjoy talking to and someone who I think my father would enjoy. When I walked into his office hours for the first time this quarter, he questioned my changed career plans and pushed me to not do a literature/film review as everyone else was required to do but rather allowed me to develop a research project of my own choice (that I am supposed to currently be working on). I always had the option of following the easier path should I find research too challenging, but I am not fond of disappointing people who have put their faith into me, and I am immensely fond of testing the limits of what I am capable of. Such is the nature of Professor Tong.

This is actually not the first time that a teacher has taken an interest in me and taken great care to be a mentor. I was quite fortunate to have a great high school experience where I was mentored by many teachers, two in particular. One was Mr. Jackson, my sophomore and senior honors/AP English teacher, and the other was Mr. Phillips, the faculty advisor for the school's Model UN club and my teacher for International Relations.

Mr. Jackson's philosophy is to teach for life. Not only do I still use a modified version of his reading strategy to this day, I find myself still remembering and using the various trivia tidbits I've learned from his classes over the years. He encouraged me to read more outside of class, and I've enjoyed several discussions with him about books we've both read. I will always be grateful to him for teaching me how to read a book. 

Mr. Phillips would frequently book tickets to see guests speak at the World Affairs Council of Northern California and take his students out to dinner afterwards. It was there that I learned how to order a steak, what entrees taste better than others, and how to enjoy gastronomical experiences. 

I would not be an Epicurean without Mr. Phillips' guidance, and I would not be such an erudite person without Mr. Jackson. My thinking method and analytical skills have been sharpened by Professor Tong to such a fine degree - I cannot help but think, these people are not just grading papers and sitting in ivory towers, but rather making a difference in the lives of their students and causing ripples in the fabric of the world. They are people who I look up to and wish to emulate. I honestly wish teaching wasn't considered such a low-paid and lowly-venerated profession in modern America. For them, and all the teachers who make strides in the world despite all the news reports about abusive teachers, the flag is flung.