The People’s Professor: Community Education Goes Ivy League

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Dalton is clearly on the side of the community. In fact, he doesn’t just want Harlem protected from Columbia’s encroachment. He also encourages Harlem to encroach into Columbia.

Many Harlemites have turned Dalton’s courses into a pilgrimage of sorts. Neighborhood residents have been attending his classes, some of them for more than 10 years. They never pay a fee or officially register; they simply slip in. Some are bibliophiles or retirees; others are body builders and taxi drivers. They range in age from 19 to “I’m not telling.”

If Dalton’s lectures took place in a towering cathedral, they could be no more of a spiritual experience to the folks from Harlem. He gives them access to the inaccessible, an elite school that has, in its own posturing, presented itself as sacred but instead come off as segregationist. He adds structure to their lives, motivating them to make the trek up the hill every Tuesday and Thursday, come rain or shine. He sees them not as God’s children but as Plato’s philosopher kings. And they, in turn, give Dalton a gift that few academics will ever receive: a claim to authenticity.

How did a professor at one of the nation’s most exclusive colleges manage to become the people’s professor? As with many grand social experiments, it began with an unlikely friendship.

Ben Armstead, a gregarious entrepreneur in his 70s with caterpillar eyebrows and freckles thrown across his pale brown cheeks, learned about Dalton’s classes in 1994 when he was helping Columbia students move into their dorm rooms for extra money (never mind that he was pushing 60 at the time). As he lugged computers and bean bag chairs, he would ask the students about their favorite courses and teachers. Dalton’s name came up over and over again.

Their eyes alight, students spoke of a political science professor who preached the importance of finding one’s Platonic areté, or calling. They talked about a professor who freely gave out his home phone number and the questions to the final exam prior to administering it—his own little rebellion against grades. They described a man who filled their heads with theory, but no less than he filled their hearts with love.

Ben decided to have a look for himself and slipped into one of Dalton’s lectures. He was immediately hooked and approached the professor after class to introduce himself. Dalton, who had ached to reach across the Ivy League divide for several decades, was honored to have a Harlem elder in attendance and invited Ben to return as often as his schedule would allow. He had no idea just how dedicated his new student would be.

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