The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 15
717 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Lester Gladstone Bugbee
Modern Europe, and Garrison added a graduate course in Texas
History. Considering his ability, preparation, and burden of
debt, the salary was disappointing; but certainly it was in
Texas that he could do his most fruitful work. And, perhaps,
financially he did not fare so badly in the end, as salaries then
were; in 1896 he was promoted to $900, which he drew for three
years, and in 1899 to $1500.
I can describe some of the characteristics of Bugbee's teach-
ing, but can convey only a faint idea of the impression that
he made on freshman and sophomore classes. In the first place,
he was always completely prepared. Before going to a class,
he reduced his subject to a very brief outline on a slip of paper
about the size of a postal card and used no other notes. He
never sat at a desk, never lectured formally, but moved around
the room asking questions and discussing the answers. This
is a type of instruction that generally consumes much time
and leads to muddling, but somehow he avoided confusion and
always reached the end of the day's assignment. He frequently
sent students to a wall map to locate places and explain the
geography of a subject. He required classes to hand in maps,
outlines, and summaries, and gave frequent quizzes --some
unannounced. He graded all of the papers, and his marginal
comments were models of precision and neatness. Aside from
the facts of the subject, I think students got from him habits
of logical organization, precision of thought and expression,
and a feeling for the long-run orderly progression of history.
He had one mannerism that all who saw him in class will
remember, the habit of playing with his watch chain, winding
and unwinding it around the index finger of his right hand.
I have seen students gather around his desk and talk for an
hour after a recitation. He never seemed in a hurry, never
seemed to have anything else to do. I have never understood
how he accomplished so much; the only explanation seems to
be that he must have worked long hours when other men slept.
Even mediocre students respected his quiet dignity and ability,
and serious students trusted and admired him. In common with
most great teachers, he early discerned qualities of potential
scholarship in promising students and encouraged them by
understanding appraisal of their work. In his writing, he was
a master of conciseness and compression, never over-elaborating
details, always relating his investigation to the broader field15
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/21/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.