George J. Leonard

I have definitely never had a Professor like Dr. Leonard, and I can easily say I started out really disliking him...but grew to be slightly fond of him. He's very full of himself, is very intimidating, and power trips the class into submission. He definitley does not encourage discussion, which many students like, and has a great need to dominate the spot light. I did find myself, after looking past my dislike of his obvious flaws, enjoying many of his lectures, his sometimes contradictory ideas,even if I didn't agree with his politics, which he loved to shove down our throats, I appreciated something about him...I guess it's always good to experience different types. All my teachers have been liberal and open, he's kind of a slap in the face that not everyone is democratic and rational. It's an easy A in the long run, if you can cope with abuse, you might enjoy the exposure...

Prof. Leonard is one of the best teachers I have ever had. He expects the class to respect him, but he earns it. Don't EVER be more than 5-10 min. late and don't be loud when you walk in. Pay attention or he'll make you cry in front of the class. If you get to know him and show that you are actually listening to what he's saying, he will love you. Go to his office hours, even if just to say hi. He can be very intimidatng, but he's really a nice guy. The class itself is pretty easy. He gives you ample extra credit opporunities so take adavantage of them. yaaaay leonard! woo hoo!

Dear Students, I agree with previous student that since Leonard posts the anonymous student exit poll why not just copy and paste here? He can't fix these they are anonymous and his department keeps them. He doesn't see them until after the semester. This one if for course is California Culture Hum 450 (he has others too On-Line. www.georgeleonard.com) COPY FOLLOWING Last evaluation of HUMANTIES 450 California Culture compiled by Department Secretary Annette Speed. Written opinions in full:

Leonard is the best professor I've had. Inspiring. Open minded. Fair. California Culture class is extremely important, more students should take it. /Professor Leonard is one of those professors that makes students [aspire?] to another level. /Helpful information for the "real" world. Well worth the price of admission! /Great helpful hints and feedback on writing skills! /I truly feel that I have learned more from California culture than in any other class I have taken at SFSU. The course is extremely relevant to my life and academic career. My writing and critical think skills have been improved greatly. /This course has colored my thinking in nearly everything I do. As a cinema major it has colored the way in which I view films and analyze characters. It has improved my writing skills by tenfold and given me an extremely broad view of cultural diversity and the ways in which we all relate to each other. One of the best classes I have ever taken. Mr. Leonard offers and accurate perspective of the world around us. /I feel that Professor Leonard could have reiterated that we need to remind him that wasn't spreaking from the heart. I think that his "adult course" was too flip and assuming. I felt that this was too raw of an introduction of ideas and topics to some people in the course and is damaging as their only exposure to the ideas. /Prof. Leonard's teaching skills were a tremendous learning experience to me. I learned a great deal from him and would take him in the future. /Fan-fuckin-tastic class! Only suggestion is to share papers of students willing to be heard earlier in class. Only class I will remember and apply to my life on a daily basis. Leonard, I hate to toot your horn but you are the man! Few teachers have the chutzpah to say what they think and not apologize. I left class thinking and wanting to learn more. Thanx, thanx, and thanx again. Good luck in your future work! I grew up in a family of teachers and I learned real teachers are few and far between. Be proud to be one of them. May you always walk in beauty! /This has been an extremely enjoyable class--I'm sorry to see it end. I really appreciate the way that the class was structured to make us more of a community than a classroom of students. Coming to class was always a great experience in an environment so conducive to learning. I feel as though I've learned things that have been applicable to my everytday life. The class was a success! Thank you. Expect to see me in your future classes...

I also thought the class was great.

It's not that you won't learn a lot in Leonard's class -- far from it -- it's that the main subject you will learn about is Leonard himself, specifically about how "great" he is. I had to buy his book, and use about 10 pages of it (the bookstore will not want it back) as well as a book called Christ which edited that I did not use at all. For every ten minutes of lecturing, there was another fifteen minutes of self-congratulatory storytelling. Did you know he performed at Woodstock, or that he lived in the same apartment building as John Lennon? You will know these stories by heart if you take his class.

An exercise early on in the class I took involved describing what a "spiritual" person is like. Our class arrived with many words, such as understanding, humble, accepting, kind... these words do not describe Leonard. Leonard is incapable of complimenting anyone without reserving an even greater compliment for himself, which will immediately follow; "He was a great speaker... but not as educated as I am."

For me the most frustrating aspect is that Leonard seems like an interesting character, and I agree with many of his philosophies -- I just wish he would have lived up to them.

This was the best class i have ever taken. I will be graduating soon and i will take this class with me as one of the hightlights for my university experience. George Leonard is a great teacher, he knows he has tenure so he just teaches what he enjoys, which is great because he pours his soul into it!! This class is not for everyone though, you have to be at a certain level or you will think that it is unstructered and useless, but those of you who are at that level, you will love it. George Leonard is a great guy, and despite his somewhat scary and intimidating classroom manner, this guy is all good!

Thanks Prof Loanard!!!!

Leonard puts the course rating thing we did in class on his site georgeleonard.com (which I copyed and pasted here.) As Leonard also put the readings and parts of his lectures you have a lot to look at in deciding are you going to like Leonard. Here is the copy: HOW HAS THIS PROFESSOR BEEN EVALUATED BY STUDENTS? During the past fifteen years over 2500 students have, after Prof. Leonard's classes, filled out anonymous computer evaluations administered by SFSU, given to the professor only after the marks have been mailed. They are kept on departmental file. In answer to ten specific questions like "Was his grading fair?" "Was he available at stated office hours?" "Did he know his subject?" and so on, replies have averaged, with amazing consistency, about 80% "excellents", 17 percent "very goods," with 1 percent "good," 1 percent "poor" 1 percent "no opinion." Optional written comments in full, verbatim, added to computer forms in last evaluation, Fall 2001 (compiled by Dept. Sec. Annette Speed): This was the best class that I have attended at San Francisco State University. Every book covered was on my personal reading list since childhood, and indeed should be required curriculum for any man or woman claiming to be educated. Professor Leonard was a fantastically engaging orator, and never failed to allow a new idea to take life. I wish that there were a continuation for this class, a sequel of sorts, you can be sure I would be first to enroll. The salvage project was a communion with another self, lost in the haze of childhood. It was an incredible experience., On the basis of this class I intend on requesting professor Leonard as my advisor. /I found this course to be inspiring and it made me more aware of the cultural diversities in believes and values in others, religions , and perpectives. I feel that this enlightenment has given me a deeper appreciation for others and has opened new understandings of the world and my own human experience. I hope there will be further opportunity to explore the insights of other cultures and the origins of their foundations, as has been so skillfully integrated in this course with so many of our worlds influential thinkers and leaders presented for our interst. Thank you for this opportunity. / This course and the instructor were incredible. I learned a great deal from Prof. Leonard's firsthand knowledge of a diverse amount of religions and history. I expecially liked the museum project we had where we went to the Palace of the Legion of Honor to study mysticism. Also our salvage project reinvigorated my own spirituality, which is something I have desperately needed. I loved this class! / This class was phenomenal. For years now I have searched the class schedule for this fusion of the sacred and the profane. Finally, a professor who can explain the great mysteries of the major world religions in such a fashion that we all understand and enjoy it! / I enjoyed the class; very insightful to opening doors about myself that hadn't been opened. Loved the trips to the musuem,. / The museum project was one of the best projects, papers I have been assigned since attending this school. My special projject paper helped me to understand the many gaps in life stemming from my childhood experiences with religion and the many choices I had. I will highly recommend this class to anyone interested. /This class has taught me valuable lessons with the way I live my life. Now I look at my surroundings with a new and a more rounded perspective. A class such as this is vital to the creation of a person. /Course was very valuable. Walked away with useful and tangible tools for furthering my education and life perspective. /This has been an amazing course. Dr. Leonard taught the different concepts of mysticism in a non-judgemental, jargon-free manner. Additionally, his writing assignments exercised and improved my wriing much more than other similar courses here. Dr. Leonard's personally prepared course materials were priceless. They supported his lectures wonderfully! /Prof. Leonard is a dynamic professor. This particular course was interesting in that all my preconceived ideas of mysticism were shattered. This course is a keeper! /This course has been instrumental in answering a lot of questions I had about Christianity and the bible. It has been enlightening as well as enriching. I truly enjoyed the Confucian part of the lecture. It has been very inspirational. More classes such as these should be offered. It offers a lot of food for thought. It was a great help and has helped me redefine what spirituality means for me. /I think that this class stands out in my mind as one of the best and most beneficial courses I have taken at Sfsu. It is extremely refreshing to take a course that encourages students to think rather than memorize key terms. I have pulled many things from this course. I feel that I will walk away from it with more knoweldge and insight than any class I have taken this semester. My first experiences in the Humanities department were negative and I almost didn't take the class based on that, but following this class, I am encouraged to continue taking classes in this department. /In all honesty, this is the single most enlightening and personally educational class I have ever had. We have a loosely organized structure geared towards the progess of our learning, not structured for the sake of satisfying concrete organization we have grown up with in our schooling system. This class became more of a spiritual experience in the form of a very diverse educational tradition. Professor Leonard is a very inspiring individual who is always willing to listen and help wherever required. His method of teaching is by far the most effective I have personally experienced. I am not lying at all. This is a very important class.

I won't give him an F for one reason: he is smart, he knows the field, and he really does want you to learn. Okay, that's three. I gave him a D because of his personality and lack of teaching skills. LACK OF TEACHING SKILLS His syllubus was 19 pages long, full of differnt fonts, sizes and colors, arranged haphazardly, not sequentially, and his lectures followed the same pattern. He would be roaring down the freeway at 90 on some topic, then suddenly change gears and turn down a side road, thus leaving his students to determine what was pertinent information and what was a stand up routine, which, believe me, was most of the material. He made a huge point of how the class was in the midst of dealing with "hot button" topics that would incur firey discussions, however not ONE occured. Rarely, until the end of the semester, did the regime allow an open forum, and by that time, no one really cared. The field trip to the museum was disorganized and offered scattered, arrogant commentary of the art. I had more fun (and learned more)walking around by myself afterwords. He also handed out an assignment which I, and others in the class, didn't find out until much later that it was actually extra credit. He could hardly communicate to us...which brings me to HIS PERSONALITY Dr. Leonard is heraled as a caring professor who really works with students, especially those on academic probation, to make them strive for bringing up their GPA. If this is you, you may have a different outlook. But for those students who are doing fine academically and are just looking for some intellectual stimulation while fulfilling a requirment, be prepared to deal with an arrogant, narrow minded, self-promoting, out of touch and out of line professor. When asked questions of the students he would rarely wait until they were finished speaking before he would interrupt and move on; he came to class late routinely, saying he always set his watch slow, but then would get so involved in his own lecture that he would keep us after class the five minutes he was late just to finish; everything written about the tantrums is true-was he trying to be hip, edgey, provacative? Whatever his tactic, it was extremly unprofessional and immature. To be an influencing professor one needs to know their material, which Dr. Leonard does, indeed. But one also needs, and this is most important, to be able to transmit the material in ways that are understandable. If they do that, then we can over look their personal flaws. But when their material delivery is muddled and confusing AND they come across as complete fools and assholes, they should continue their careers from their computers in the security of a family who loves them despite their flaws. Take him if you can deal with all this-it's an easy A, and a few of the texts (though not the one by him, which he assigned for no reason) are excellent.

I will be the first to admit, the guy is a little strange and scary. He does run around screamning and throws tantrums as if he's three years old on the first day. He says he does that to "weed out" those who won't take the class seriously and it's true, he didn't have those tantrums after the first day and needless to say, the class size dropped dramatically.

I was one of the masochists who stayed and I'm glad I did. His lectures were interesting, his approach to readings was different but the reading list (a long one) wasn't too bad. As long as you are prepared for any possible quizzes and do the assignments on time (and there weren't many), he's okay. Just be warned about his occasional tantrums.

I'm not that schooled in liberal arts, but he has to be the most entertaining teacher I've ever had. He is a creative thinker and has original (to me) ideas.

To consider: His main jist seems to be to challenge the student and write about introspective processes, which some people can be uncomfortable with, I suppose. He is a shameless self-promoter, which some consider tacky. The material in his class is controversial and some people might find it uncomfortable. Check out his website first, www.georgeleonard.com.

If the student can be a little flexible and non-judgemental, I'd say this is a fabulous class and teacher.

The questions on his final were exactly what he emphasized in class.

Professor Leonard is very sweet. Don't let him scare you! I had to bring my baby on the museum trip and he was cranky but Professor Leonard said when you got one of your own you never hear it and just kept on talking. He is the only instructor like to work with people on probabtion. He says he will rewrite your paper with you how many times it takes until you get the mark that gets you off probabtion. I got off. Go on the museum trip. It is very important to him and he takes us on his day off. You don't do it and he will be all up in your face. And you got to buy the museum pass thing ($10) to show him you care. I repeat I never had an instructor tell us he likes to work with people on probation. He is wild but also really good. PS write a long autobiography at the start of the class when he asks you and tell him what you need. Also, he puts the reading list and everything about the class on his website.

I cannot believe that other people actually could stand this man's class.My experience, was, unfortunately, less ideal. The class was titled "California Culture", yet we were required by Mr. Leonard to purchase many random novels/poetry by people who teach at SFSU (who needed to sell books), including an absurd short pamphlet on writing essays he self published and charged a ridiculous amount of money for, and a class schedule which was basically a syllabus we had to buy, which of course, was required. He made up the reading list, so I do hold him accountable for its inadherence to topic. The first day of class consisted of him posturing and breaking into an unprovoked temper tantrum (we had been listening quietly)in the middle of a lecture, throwing a chair across the room, and yelling in the face of the unfortunate student who happened to be closest. He claimed he wanted to show us how serious he was about his class, and that we shouldn't expect him to be "easy". His screaming was like that of a child, but scary because his temper had flared, apparently at his own thoughts, so it was out of the blue. He cussed and literally kvetched (we were required to learn Yiddish terms for our final in California Culture...?) on for a good portion of each class about being a Jew. He really has a chip on his shoulder about being Jewish, so if you do not want to hear a daily speech or Jewish joke session, I'd avoid his class. He even once said in class,when nobody laughed at one of his Jewish jokes, "I bet none of you have even ever seen a Jew. I feel like showing you my big circumsized dick." Yes, this is verbatum, I wrote it down. Highly inappropriate, and disproportionately focused on for a class on California Culture. Also highly inappropriate is his use of class-time for self promotion, bringing in a copy of his design for a website about dinosaurs for the class to critique and give notes on at length, because he "doesn't have to pay us". I resented being used as cheap labor in a class that I paid money to the university to take. One time, he dumped a box of chalk on the ground purposely, stepping on it and creating quite a mess for the poor janitor. He said, "I can do that, I am [tenured/head of the department]", something to that effect. I couldn't believe the unchecked elitism, his lack of concern for others. I could go on with incidents, but it isn't worth even more of my time. I think he is aware of his inappropriate behavior, because on a few occasions, he mentioned that he has tenure and we couldn't get rid of him if we tried. I don't know which class these other people had him for, but my experience was the WORST I have had at SFSU. Perhaps they bought in to his diatribe, because he is an extremely aggressive and intimidating man. I'm sure young, more malleable students are much more willing to accept whatever they are told by someone in a position of power. That's why I really believe he abuses his power. I don't understand how his arrogance has gotten him this far, but I really didn't appreciate the waste of my time and money on books which did not adhere to the topic of the class.

Mr. Leonard is highly intelligent, focused and knowledgable about his subject. He approaches the subject of Mysticism in an organized, fair manner in regards to Christianity, Judaism, Taoism, and Confucianism, while delving into the art world as well, bringing all of these subjects together. The only problem with Mr. Leonard is he KNOWS how intelligent he is, and can come off as pretentious, egotistical and condenscending. However, you get your money's worth in his class and if you can deal with his slightly inflated attitude, you WILL learn quite a bit. It's a good class and he is not a bad guy.

All I can say is: Put your seat belts on. You're in for a ride if you take a course with PROFESSOR Leonard.

Not recommended for the faint of heart-don't let him intimidate!

The first meeting of this class, Professor Leonard yelled at almost everybody who asked him questions. He slammed his desk and told us leave the room for a few minutes while he talks to a couple of students in the class. I guess because he didn't want to cause embarassment, but he already did. The class itself is alright, just don't take his harsh criticism seriously.

Professor Leonard is, by far, the most vibrant, intelligent, kind, and compassionate instructor that I've had at State so far. His lectures are engaging and insightful and he has a sense of humor to boot. He spends a lot of class time showing slides. Pay close attention when he gives these slide presentations! The bulk of the midterm and the final consisted of material that was covered in class on the slide projector. If I remember correctly, there was one in-class, open-book midterm, one long paper, several short papers, and the final. The final exam was also open-book and open-notes. The reading was not too intense. For the 407 course we read two novels (Flaubert's "M. Bovary", and Stendahl's "The Red and the Black"). When it comes to grading he is pretty lenient. I didn't even read Stendhal and I received an "A" for the course. The papers that he assigns are also graded in a lenient fashion. If you're interested in whatever Prof. Leonard teaches then I suggest you take a course with him. He has an impressive grasp on the subject matter and he has the ability to breakdown complex ideas into simple, easy-to-digest bits of information.

Professor Leonard is really cool. Everyone had a good time in his class California Culture. I wish I could take this class all over again. He's a little intimidating at first, but he's not really after you get used to the class. Some students say he's arrogant, but it sure beats false modesty! Besides, he knows the subject. The class is not too hard, and you'll learn a lot of important stuff, while having fun doing it.

Professor Leonard is the best teacher I have had the privilege to learn from at SFSU, plus he is also a sincere, compassionate and engaging man. In class he creates an environment where the students are receptive to novel concepts. He presents a potpourri of theories, spiced with wonderful humor. His classes are usually at night, yet I never failed to attend or do the work. There is plenty of reading and quite a bit of writing, but the feedback is always helpful. Do yourself a favor, if you want to be stimulated and expand your world view, take any of his classes

Professor Leonard is a dynamic and empowering figure. He can be a little full of himself, but he has earned it. His class is based mostly on lecture. You study the Ole and New Testaments as well as Nieztsche, John Cage, Impressionistic Art, The Tao, and Confucius. The man is very eager to let you learn how to write. He'll let you make up papers if you did poorly on them. He knows his subject very thouroughly and has many insights. His tests are not too hard providing you show up to class regularly. All papers must be in on time or he does not take credit. If you slack, it will be hard, but in his class, it is hard to slack. The subject matter is quite interesting and powerful. You learn things they never teach at church or in other forums. Professor Leonard is a lot of fun and his grading is rather lenient, especially if you're a good writer. But what would one expect from a novelist/Sha Na Na creator.

Wow, I don't really like to say negative things about my professors;I feel that most of them are doing the best that they can, but I had to say something when I read the other reviews of Dr. Leonard.

I found him to be very full of himself. He took credit for many very well-known theories and supported too many of his examples with personal anecdotes, which he seemed to equate with the results of research.

What really got to me was his annoying habit of repeating himself - and I'm not talking about minor comments. I'm talking about 10 minute soliloquies repeated verbatim, complete with "spontaneous" comments. Whenever he started one of these stories, I felt like jumping out the window.

At any rate, I'm not a Humanities student; I just took the class for a G.E. Maybe he's good enough for Humanities students.

Dr. Leonard is easily the best professor I have ever encountered. His passion and scholarship in and of themselves would be enough to make his classes great, but he's entertaining as hell on top of it. Do yourself a favor and take any class with him you can!

George J. Leonard is by leaps and bounds, the BEST professor I've ever had - and most of my classmates would agree with me. Leonard's magic is a combination of humor, sincerity, passion, and insight. He gives the most constructive and candid feedback I've ever seen. His courses are challanging - in a great way - but not too difficult for anyone. Highly recommended!