Students Speak
Dr. Goldberg has affected many students, sometimes in ways hard to articulate. But because his course is constantly under threat of losing its institutional support, it is up to the current and former students to make sure it continues. The next generation of students at UNC deserve to have the opportunity to encounter these great ideas, taught by Dr. Goldberg in a totally unique way.
Please use this space to share your thoughts, experiences, stories, or expressions of support. If you are a student who wrote a teaching nomination, or if you were part of the alumni letter campaigns between 1998 and 2008, please post the text here or send them to us in an email, since we no longer have those records. Every voice makes a difference!
Doctor Goldberg 
As an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I took two honors seminars of Dr. Goldberg’s “The Elements of Politics.” As a comparative literature major, I always had a thirst for great books and I was drawn in by the course readings which bring texts like Freud, Plato, and Turgenev into dialogue. As many former students above have noted, Dr. Goldberg’s seminars exceed the mastery of continental philosophy through weekly reading and precis. What “The Elements of Politics” offers UNC students is space for conversation. Every single student that takes a seat in the circle of desks in the top of Greenlaw with Dr. Goldberg makes a commitment to themselves and to each other. Students of philosophy make a commitment to living the examined life. And I truly believe a commitment to critical reflection and analysis it is one of the most important pacts you can make with yourself as an undergraduate. Furthermore, it was in Dr. Goldberg’s seminars where I met some of the brightest, thoughtful individuals I have ever encountered in my academic career. It was Dr. Goldberg and his students who taught me how to ask questions, how to begin and continue a conversation about abstract concepts like justice, truth, and beauty. This website is a symptom of why “The Elements of Politics” is so legendary at UNC. It draws the philosophically minded and critically reflective students at UNC, and keeps them coming back for eight semesters of reading and conversation. In the face of budget cuts, we have to ask ourselves questions that extend beyond the numbers and the money gained. If we allow the honors program to cut The Elements of Politics, what is really being lost? I truly feel that cutting TEP would mean snuffing out space for intellectual conversation at the University of North Carolina. Sadly, I fear this is only a symptom of a larger problem in the current cultural moment. Wishing Dr. Goldberg all the best, and many thanks for his dedication over the years.
Emily O’Rourke, Class of 2008
PhD candidate in Rhetoric at the University of California at Berkeley
If the university follows through on its short-sighted plan to cut this course in half (as this website is indicating), it’s doing a colossal disservice to the the entire student body.
Dr. Goldberg’s “Elements” Courses were life-changing classes that have forever affected the way I look at the world. They are educational in every sense of the word and remain the best courses I have taken in any academic setting–which explains why I took 6 of the 8 courses during my time at UNC. These courses explore the most important questions that we can ask of ourselves, delving into the very mysteries of human existence and human nature via some of history’s greatest works of philosophy and literature. If that’s not an important component of a college education, then I really don’t know what is.
Dr. Goldberg also served as my C-START adviser and provided guidance as I worked on my thesis on Shakespeare. He has been an enormous influence on my academic career and, in my experience, he has been nothing but the consummate professional academic instructor–someone more concerned with actually TEACHING his students than anything else.
If there’s anything I can do to help the cause, let me know.
Michael Morrill ’10
University of Chicago Law School, Class of 2014
In deciding how to allocate scarce funds, I hope administrators will remember that a fundamental purpose of undergraduate education is to produce critical and objective thinkers.
I can say without hesitation that any course within Dr. Goldberg’s Elements of Politics series will produce critical and objective thinkers. The reason for this is that the course requires students to read original “Great” works in political thought, form their own understanding of the works (i.e. how the particular “Great” views humanity and society), discuss the implications of this premise on society with their peers, and finally distill that material to its essence via a precis. Nothing is oversimplified or watered down.
I remain awestruck by the brilliance of Aristotle, Swift, Kant, and the other “Greats,” and because I have been directly exposed to and challenged by their writings, I choose to live consciously instead of instinctively–to rationally analyze my decisions to benefit myself and others. I use the critical thinking and reading skills that I developed in Dr. Goldberg’s classes daily in my work as an attorney.
In expressing strong support for the Elements of Politics, I do not wish to demean the value of any other courses at UNC-Chapel Hill. I am grateful to all of my professors and for the invaluable lessons that they have imparted to me (and continue to impart as I grow older). My undergraduate experience was greatly enriched by Dr. Goldberg, and I hope that future generations of students will have the same opportunity. Recognizing that resources are scarce, if the University needs alumni funding to help maintain the Elements of Politics, you can count on me.
Dr. Goldberg’s class taught–and teaches me still–how to be a better person in the world. There are so many things I carry with me that I can hardly list them here. I learned to think clearly, even when scared, to appreciate the beautiful, love the good, to show mercy. I learned to make my thought more precise and to choose my words with care, since these are our tools for getting at the true nature of things. My semesters in Honors 32 were the very heart of my undergraduate experience. Dr. Goldberg is a rare person and the best teacher I’ve had. UNC is lucky to have him on board, and should keep in in the classroom as long as he is willing to be there.
I’m so honored to have been a part of these experiences described here, and am deeply moved in reading them. I was a student of the course between ’95-’98, with Mr. Storey (above), Mr. Wilson, Ms. Thayer, and other greats. Dr. Goldberg taught me to read, write, and wonder at a time when I was a bit too certain of some things. I’ve just finished a phd in philosophy and truly wish I could return and take the course again – it is so rare to be in a room where the love of truth trumps ideology, and where the moral trajectory of all questions is seen and felt as a vital thing.
Dr. Goldberg’s course was by far the best I had at UNC. He is the inspirational educator that students hope to find in college. His passion for learning was contagious and inspired me in every aspect of my life the semester I had him. I learned not only about the texts covered in the syllabus but how to be a better person and a better citizen. UNC would be doing a disservice to its future students if it does not continue to offer his course.
I was recently back home after having been overseas for years and took a moment to look at the books on my bookshelf. As I browsed, my eyes landed on Nietzsche, Kant, Heidegger, Descartes, Sartre, Aristotle, Tolstoy…. Although years had passed since sitting in Dr. Goldberg’s courses, I felt such a deep appreciation for Dr. Goldberg. What he managed to teach us went beyond what every other lecture or class could – he taught us how to think for ourselves, how to effectively analyze the world around us, how to become better citizens, how to explore our role in society, and gave us thirst to learn more. After a day of sitting in one of Dr. Goldberg’s courses, a student is already changed – a student matures into a responsible, thoughtful member of society. During my first semester at UNC, I began to hear about the legendary Dr. Goldberg. I could not grasp why so many students could be this excited about a course and why so many students across all different majors felt the need to enroll in his course. With curiosity, I went ahead and took his course. When that one ended, I took another. And then, I wished I could take them all. I became part of his growing fan club and will continue to recommend his class to any newcomer who has not experienced the Goldberian education. It is important for educational institutions to shape the leaders of tomorrow, not just increase the knowledge base of its students. Dr. Goldberg achieves what I think few professors across the nation can – he inspires students to be passionate about education and as he engages students in discussions, he reminds us all about the true point of education. No matter the budget cuts, UNC has the greatest asset of all, it has gold at its feet – it has Dr. Goldberg.
Six years out of undergrad, I still credit Dr. Goldberg’s class as being the one that taught me to read for the first time, back in my final semester of college. I had never before experienced a professor with so much respect for a text and its author, and being guided to sit at an an author’s feet and learn from him/her before casting stones was one of the most moving experiences I had in my intellectual development. The skills Dr. Goldberg taught me all those years ago are ones I use every day as a PhD student in English literature at Notre Dame, and I can say without a doubt that his class changed my life.
Dr. Goldberg’s class taught me how to think more so than any class I’ve attended at Carolina or in graduate school. I actually enjoyed reading War and Peace (a lot), which is probably not something many people who are not students of Goldberg’s can say. It would be a real waste of a mind and a tragedy if Dr. Goldberg was not able to share his keen ability for desiphering literature with undergaduates.
I can wholeheartedly say that Dr. Goldberg’s classes were always among the most enjoyable, intellectually stimulating experiences of my undergraduate education. The passion with which he approaches literature, moral philosophy, and the great questions of Western thought is unparalleled in our current watered-down, research-driven academic climate. I cannot thank him enough for the gifts he gave me both as a writer and as a critical reader. It would be an absolute shame if the University of North Carolina cannot find a way to keep The Elements of Politics going. If we lose the opportunity to study great thinkers through the unadulterated lens of these classes, we might as well give up the whole project of a university education.
Recommended, poignant reading from my studies with Dr. Goldberg: Cardinal Newman, “The Idea of a University.”
Larry Goldberg’s modest, genial art of teaching consists mostly of setting the best that has been thought and said before his students and then, Columbo-style, asking “one little question.” Dr. Goldberg’s little questions — say, for example, “what is justice?” — turn out not to be so little upon examination. Once one attempts to answer such a question, one discovers that one’s text and one’s teacher has another little question behind that one, and still another behind that.
Real teaching, a great teacher once told me, is the art of erasing: erasing all those things we think we know from the scribble-filled whiteboards of our minds. Dr. Goldberg’s little questions were his erasers; I knew much less when I left his class than I thought I did when I started. The experience was immensely liberating. Why it is that coming to discover one’s own ignorance can feed the soul as well as humbling it is a mystery I do not well understand, but I am grateful beyond words to Dr. Goldberg for introducing me to that mystery.
The University of North Carolina possesses a treasure in this man. I have never met a teacher who surpassed him, either in Chapel Hill or among the luminaries I encountered during my graduate studies at the University of Chicago.
Although I still do not know what justice is, I learned from one of the books that I read with Dr. Goldberg that “giving to each what he deserves” has something to do with it. Not out of generosity, but out of simple justice, it is time for UNC to give this man the honor he so deeply deserves.
Benjamin Storey
Associate Professor of Political Science
Furman University
Under the guidance of the late Robert Kirkpatrick, I took four semesters of Honors 32 during my time at UNC, from spring ’02 to fall ’04, and can attest that Prof. Goldberg’s course was one of the two most intellectually exciting things to happen to me while I was at UNC (the other being my acquaintance with Robert). The course is an education unto itself; while Dr. Kirkpatrick taught me to read poetry, Prof. Goldberg taught me to read prose, a skill that other courses would also have developed, but nowhere so effectively as in that meeting of minds that occurs when confronting a great text one-on-one, without the filter or fetter of any discipline, theory, or technical jargon, in a passionate search to discover what is fundamental, essential, and necessary about each author and work. ‘Without filter or fetter’ but not without guide: Prof. Goldberg has long been that guide for so many of this University’s most talented and impressive students. As a lowly freshman I was amazed and inspired by the level of discourse in his classes, and as a returning alumnus I felt the same inspiration on meeting students drawn to him from all different eras of his teaching. Prof. Goldberg is a TEACHER in a time when academic specialization and the scramble for tenure make that quality increasingly endangered at research institutions; because I’ve kept in touch with him over the years, I know how deeply he cares about all of his students, current and former, and I come back to visit because I know how rare it is to be simultaneously in the presence of such brilliance and such goodness. A teacher myself, I admire his profound belief in every student’s ability to confront challenging ideas, wrestle with them, and emerge enriched, while his focus on the heart of a work, its first principles and reason for being, imparts to his students a sense of passion, urgency and importance so often lacking from more technical or scholarly approaches. The need he filled and fills for so many of us is real, profound, and may well go begging without him. It seems to me that Prof. Goldberg teaches not only intellectuals but also citizens; that his students are consistently among the cream of UNC’s crop; and that any teacher with such an army of passionate, gifted and vocal partisans surely should be allowed to continue the work he is doing for the University and the world. I loved and am grateful for my time at UNC, and much of that love and gratitude rest squarely with Prof. Goldberg; years from now, many incoming students will say the same, if only they are given the opportunity.
Chris Childers ’05