French Professor John Rassias is known for putting his students in tough situations with his unconventional teaching methods.
Jessica Hill '97, a student in Rassias' 10 a.m. French 2 class had to walk barefoot and blindfolded across a floor covered with bran flakes and egg yesterday while a crew from "Good Morning America" filmed.
Claudia McMahon, the producer for the Sunday edition of "Good Morning America," said the news and entertainment show interviewed Rassias as part of a new series on outstanding professors who teach in unique ways.
Rassias is the first of such interviews.
"I saw an article on him in a magazine from a Continental Air flight and I brought it in and [the producers] liked the idea," McMahon said.
The three to four minute piece on him will air either this Sunday or the following Sunday at 9 a.m.
Joan Jex, the field producer for the Sunday edition of "Good Morning America," and her crew arrived at 9 a.m. yesterday to set up the classroom for the shooting.
The crew closed all the blinders in order to create the proper lighting effect and arranged the chairs in a horseshoe around Rassias so he could be filmed moving in between the students.
"It was a normal class, although we had a few things prepared. There were no big surprises," Katharine Danzansky '96 said.
"Everyone was nervous, but we pretended it was a real class even though there was a cameraman running around," Jason Hendricks '96 said.
Hendricks was one of the students in the class whom the crew interviewed separately after the filming.
"They asked if the system works and whether we understand French better," he said.
The crew tried to capture Rassias' various classroom antics that attempt to catch students off guard. He regularly uses props such as swords, starting guns and bran flakes during his class lectures.
"Beyond catching them off-guard, these exercises show the potential of language and that it extends beyond conjugations," Rassias said. Language is creative and has a powerful impact."
"I show language as an enactment of power," he added.
Rassias also led an exercise in which the students put brown paper bags on their heads. He then grunted and made animal noises.
"If you don't know a foreign language, all unfamiliar sounds seem like animal noises," Rassias said.
Rassias also instructed the crew to zoom in for a close-up on him when he pulled on his shirt collar and ripped off his shirt to provoke responses in French from the class.
Rassias said he was concerned the show will be primarily seen by an English-speaking audience since his students are only allowed to speak French during class. But "Good Morning America" told him to just do what he normally does.
"It went very well," Rassias said. "Doing shows like this creates good publicity for Dartmouth, and for languages."
Rassias has also been on the "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and "60 Minutes."
He has been on "Good Morning America" before, although last time they filmed one of his literature classes.
