Other random memories:
The students in our class weren't particularly courteous. Probably at least twice, after the second bell rang, Mr. Glaeser had to tell the kids to take their seats so "we can get started."
Once he said "Kirk!" when Kirk Nelson was seated atop his desk with his feet on the desk in front of him. But even then Mr. Glaeser seemed to see some humor in what Kirk was doing; unlike most or all other teachers I knew, he was never really angry.
Around early February 1976, after two kids seated in front of me had dropped out, Mr. Glaeser saw me sitting down in my regular seat even though two empty ones were in front of me. "You might as well move up a couple of seats" he said, and I did. The move put me right behind Tom Grakowsky, who sat in the front right corner of the class (seen facing the front) while F. Douglas Baker was directly to my left. Incidentally, near the end of the school year, Doug asked me to sign his yearbook. When I asked "where should I sign it?" he said "anywhere." Then he asked me to sign it again. Poignant.
Once Mr. Glaeser mentioned Egypt turning way from its colonial master and toward…….."who did it turn to?…..." He had forgotten but I answered "Nasser" and he said "Nasser, thank you."
Mr. Glaeser noted that "France has a revolutionary tradition" reflected in its politics. "In France, a party named the radical revolutionary left would be like an American party to the right of Barry Goldwater." Of course he was exaggerating.
In one lecture he said "A modern state can collect taxes efficiently, spend the money effectively."
Mr. Glaeser viewed the assassination of archduke Ferdinand as an example of "the role of happenstance in history." He pointed out that the car carrying Ferdinand came close to Princep by sheer ill luck. Some people, he said, claim that even if that spark were avoided there'd be some other spark. "I don't buy that." He noted that some of the problems which led to war were "beginning to sort themselves out." I beg to differ since Ferdinand faced not a lone gunman but an organization, which had several men waiting for him. Even if Princep had no chance to attack, somebody else might have had. And if they had failed altogether that day they would've tried again (just like the would-be assassins of Hitler).
According to Mr. Glaeser, Peter the Great said one day "I think we should build a navy…"Then, a year later he would angrily yell "Where's my navy!!?" A kid said "Who's gonna do it?" Mr. Glaeser stated "There have to be lines of responsibility."
He described someone who was a patron of the arts(?) in the 13th century(?) and asked "What great movement did he anticipate?" "Come on what was it?" (the renaissance).
At one time he said something like: "In the 18th century the pattern of alliances had changed. Whereas in the 15th century the central monarch was allied with the middle class against the nobles, in the 1700s the monarch, fearing the rising middle class, allied with the nobles to try to forestall revolution."
He also mentioned the laws of revolution. "People who are totally downtrodden" he said, "are not revolutionary. They only become revolutionary after a period of betterment, when they have hope for themselves, or their children, only to see further progress blocked." He also said "there is usually little bloodshed unless resistance to the revolution develops. Then they can get very bloody."
Mr. Glaser stated that when Louis XIV gave instructions to his generals they pretended to listen to his amateurish views, they went out and fought the war the way they thought best.
Around the end of '75 he spoke about the ideas of Plato and asked on a paper why the audience felt elated after seeing the play Oedipus rex. I got it wrong and he said "the Greeks wanted to fight the gods."
Mr. Glaeser said that "After the death of Francisco Franco fascism is pretty much a dead political system…... He had said fascism "was a collection off loose ideas….Men are NOT equal. Since some are better than others, it follows that somebody must be better than everyone else. This person should be The Leader. He doesn't have to be the most intelligent but has a deeper understanding of the reality of the times." Mr. Glaser cited the THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA to illustrate another fascist idea. A guy who is just a beach bum goes on a fishing trip and hooks a whopper. After a Herculean struggle the finally reels it in and catches it. But after that he just reverts to being a beach bum. Moral: only action gives meaning to existence.
When Mr. Glaeser used the term "historicity" in reference to christ, Jason Dodge thought it was funny.
During our discussion of evolution, Mr. Glaeser said somewhat disparagingly that some people don't accept the evidence for it. A few kids looked at K. R. Murphy, who didn't seem very comfortable then, ha. He was a creationist. After I mentioned the evolution of a long neck in the giraffe as an example of evolution, Murphy said that people are now taller than they were at the start of the 20th century and there's no need to reach higher for food. Mr. Glaeser countered, rightly, "that's because of a better diet."
Around the end of the school year we were discussing current international relations, or associations. I raised my hand and said "Don't forget the OPEC bloc." Mr. Glaeser said that's "an interesting thought" but noted "all they have in common is oil." When K.R. Murphy asked if Egypt and Israel are major powers, he replied "They don't rate. Maybe when they're fighting they rate" but pointed out the small population and limited natural resources of Israel etc. As for South Africa, he noted apartheid prevented much of the population from making a full contribution.
Mr. Glaeser asked "How is the 20th century essentially different from the 19th century?" Somebody, possibly Paul Maidment, answered "Now there's a lot more technology." "All the technology we have now had its origins in the 19th century" Mr. Glaeser replied. Around the end of the school year--probably his very last lesson on June 16, 1976(?)--he said something like "many students leave the high school thinking the ideas of Newton are the last word (?) (when in fact Einstein's general relativity is)."
Tim Donovan 
