LOVE OF THE PAST HELPED PROFESSOR JOE GOOCH PREPARE STUDENTS FOR THE FUTURE

Love of the Past Helped Professor Joe Gooch Prepare Students for the Future

Professor of History and Sociology Joe Gooch has been a mainstay at Madisonville Community College for nearly 53 years. In his lengthy tenure, he has opened the minds of thousands of students and helped them to see the world and its challenges and opportunities more clearly.

Professor Gooch remembers the early years of the college when he said the faculty had a “pioneering spirit” and they were all true pioneers in higher education in Kentucky. Community colleges were newer institutions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In these early days, Gooch recalls, the college operated on a shoestring budget with lots of improvisation – in the classroom, in the planning, and in every idea the college had.

“The budget was small to start so we have to be very creative and innovative with our teaching and planning,” Gooch added. Faculty shared office space in a portable classroom trailer and taught classes in six trailers at the same location. Early graduation ceremonies Gooch said were held all over town – the Rizpah Temple, inside of tents outside, and wherever the college could find space. Faculty duties also included lighting the furnace and other duties as assigned.

Over the years, students haven’t changed much in Gooch’s opinion.

“Students have always been polite and considerate in class. They are definitely more in tune now with what’s happening around the world with digital life the way it is now though,” said Gooch. Students have access to so much more information than in the past too. When something happens around the world, you know it instantly now. Communication and the speed that knowledge travels around the world have had a major impact on our students.

As both a student and teacher of history and sociology, Gooch acknowledges that we live in a challenging time, and it is important for students to understand these challenges fully.

“It is much better to know what really happened in the past and how it affects our present. You cannot make ideas and events safe for people. You have to make people safe for the ideas and events that they might find troubling from history. The study of history allows you to recognize nonsense when you see it too. We have competing ideologies in the culture today and you need to really understand those major institutions that shape our world,” Gooch continued.

Even with these challenges and controversial topics, Gooch remains hopeful about the future.

“I am optimistic about the future, but we have to address some of the issues around inequality in our country. This gap continues to grow and it will be one of our major challenges in the next decade. But I do think our nation can still come together and come to a consensus to solve big problems.”

For Professor Gooch, it was the perfect time to end a long and fulfilling career. Or maybe not.

“I plan to live part of the year in Florida and I recently saw a college in the area that was looking for a history and sociology teacher,” said Gooch. “So who knows. I might teach a course on World War II again or sociology classes.”

Once a teacher, always a teacher.