Out of the Classroom

As with many things in life, choices lead to interesting consequences. Google almost any faculty member and the findings are to be expected — a handful of entries that are basically publications and websites. In the case of George Boeree, professor of psychology, there are about 31,500 results and the numbers keep growing.

Quick to have fun, George Boeree, professor of psychology, takes a turn as a student. The Internet has played a role in his fame off-campus.

It started with a spur of the moment decision. “I wrote a book on personality theory ten years ago. The publishers didn’t like my style: they claimed it was too casual. So I put the book on the Internet. My students love not having to pay for a textbook. And I get letters from all over the world — Russia, Canada, Australia, and interestingly India and Africa. It seems they have better access to the Internet than to textbooks.

“I liked using the Internet. It is used by young and old and fits with my socialist view that everyone should have the same access to information.”

If you visit George’s home page (http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/) you will see just how eclectic his interests truly are. Along with the aforementioned text, there are several others covering social psychology, general psychology, history of psychology, qualitative methods, and Buddhism.

His papers, big or little, follow the same informal style the publishers didn’t like. “My writing is easy to read and understand. By the time you reach the end, it all makes sense and you feel like the material is something you have always known. I’m good at simplifying,” he said.

He is also good at creating. George is proud of the language he invented called Lingua Franca Nova and points out it has its own entry in the on-line Wikipedia. He started working on the language in 1965. It fits with his interest in languages and linguistics that stems from his strong European connection.

“I wanted to create a simplified language that is easy to learn, like a creole,” he said.

Other items you might find interesting are his chess variations (including hobbit chess that grants more power to the pawns, which he calls hobbits).

He likens himself to a misfit and on the surface that appears to be true. He unabashedly admits to frequently bucking the system and going against convention. He says this attitude started while a graduate student at Oklahoma State. “I like to do things my own way. Sometimes I’m surprised they actually granted me my degree,” he laughs.

One of his favorite activities is teaching. But he checks his nonconformist ways at the classroom door. “I’m very old fashioned when it comes to the classroom. I like well-crafted lectures with stories and jokes, and students are encouraged to ask questions any time.

“I love the students here at Ship, especially those who are ‘really into’ their education. And I like those who need to be careful with their money. I don’t like spoiled kids.”

He immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands when he was a young boy and confesses he was proud of his alien status — it fit with his persistent feeling that he was from another planet.

Wherever he might have come from, George and his wife found a home in Shippensburg. “Shippensburg is my home,” he states rather seriously. “I like the countryside and the peacefulness you find here.” Then a big smile: “I like cows — ‘our ladies of the fields’ we call them.”

One of George’s interests is phenomenology. “It’s a difficult qualitative technique. It involves careful description of meaningful experiences.” The topics are familiar to most of us—anger, love, humor, alienation, free will, and pleasure to name a few.

According to George, “We’re built to have prejudices. We need them to deal effectively with life. But they are more often unconscious than not. But to do phenomenology, you need to be aware of your prejudices, and that is not easy.”

A self-proclaimed romantic, George and his wife, Judy, have been married for 35 years. She was the girl next door to his home on Long Island (now Brooklyn East, he says). Two weeks after their first date, he proposed, and two months later they were married. Today they are parents to three daughters.

When speaking of his family and particularly his wife, it is evident they hold a special place in his life. He freely states he is more in love with his wife today then when they married more than three decades ago.