QUICK HITS: Silas Johnson

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QUICK HITS:  Silas Johnson

How many children do you have? No kids. What’s your favorite movie? Can I pick two? The fact that I have a LEGO model of the Saturn 5 Rocket in my office might tip you off that I’m into NASA and space. My two favorite movies are related to NASA and space exploration: “The Right Stuff,” about the Mercury Program and “Apollo 13,” about the Apollo Program. What is your favorite genre of music? It’s sort of cliche to say I like all genres, but if I had to pick a favorite, I would probably say 1990s hip hop and rap. What piece of advice would you give to a Hillsdale College student? Don’t take advice from somebody if they say there is one “way” or one “path,” because everyone has a different way and path. And you’ll find it yourself. What college or university did you attend for undergraduate and graduate school? Hillsdale College with a B.S. in biology in 2004 and the University of Michigan with a microbiology and immunology Ph.D. in 2011. What do you like about living in Hillsdale? I don’t live in Hillsdale. I live in East Lansing, actually. What is that commute like for you? It’s 70 miles door to door, a little over an hour each way. I’ve done it for over five years now, and it’s sort of relaxing actually having some time to myself, listening to music, and podcasts. Right now I’m relearning Spanish. I took Spanish for a couple years, took a year of Spanish in Hillsdale and a couple years in high school. It’s time for myself to do things. Is your favorite language Spanish, or do you have another favorite? I would say Spanish. Although I like Italian in terms of how it sounds. I like the musical flourishes in Italian. What is the best place you have traveled to? Top of the list, the Cook Islands. My wife and I took a trip a few years ago to two of the Cook Islands. One is called Rarotonga, and the other is called Aitutaki. They were two beautiful South Pacific islands with white sand and turquoise water, amazing. Do you have a favorite type of food? Yes, all food. But if I had to pick a favorite cuisine, it would be Italian cuisine. Simple ingredients, few ingredients, and seasonal ingredients. What’s something that’s changed between your first year of teaching and now? I get more sleep. Do you have a favorite class to teach? I do not. They’re like children, you can’t pick a favorite. What is your greatest talent? My number one talent is reaching stuff on high shelves. I’m 6’5”. Where did you propose to your wife? Old Mission Point, right at the tip of the Old Michigan Peninsula. What is the best gift you have ever recieved? I’ve had a lot of good ones. My favorite though is when my wife got us season tickets to the Detroit Tigers in 2012, which was the year they went to the World Series. That was a good gift. That was a birthday gift. What is the most important virtue you look for in a friend? That’s a hard one. I don’t know if I have an answer to that one. I think that’s something I’m going to be searching for my entire life. What’s one of your pet peeves about students? I’m not easily annoyed by students, so there’s very few things that students can do to annoy me. But what bugs me the most is when students are not supportive of one another. And I found that generally, students are one another’s biggest critics. Students can learn to lighten up on one another. What is something that you think all good professors should know, or something that all good professors do? A lot of what we do as professors involve learning the techniques of teaching and the best practices of teaching. And all of that is important, but that’s not everything when it comes to teaching. It reminds me of my favorite teaching-related quote. It’s from a guy named Parker Palmer: ‘Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique. Good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.’”