“Your students are the unopened letters that you write to a time that you'll never see."
Our Mission
“Teaching is like sculpting in snow,” the American philosopher Sidney Hook was fond of saying. “You just never know what people will take away.”
The documentary Bronx Socrates is a film about one teacher that stands as a tall example of what the potential of a great educator can be. NYU philosophy professor Bob Gurland spent the better part of seven decades in classrooms at all levels of formal education. He taught more than 25,000 students throughout his tenure, and his lasting impact on our modern world is virtually immeasurable. The film and this site exist to connect Gurland with those interested in his pedagogical principles, and philosophical perspectives, and to be part of his ongoing legacy in shaping and expanding the intellectual consciousness of the most critical of those citizens in a society searching for a way to move forward and save itself, those that are willing to learn.
Synopsis of Film
Through a combination of interviews with and about Gurland, Bronx Socrates documents the life and career of an extraordinary teacher, mentor, and friend to countless students for well more than a half-century. From his tenement beginnings, through his own educational journey, and ultimately capturing his nearly seven-decade career in university education, the film explores the value and the impact of a great teacher.
Gurland’s story is even more remarkable considering his extraordinary legacy is predicated almost exclusively upon his classroom lectures and direct engagement with students across a wide swath of univerity life. Rather than yielding to the governing standards and expectations for professorial acknowledgment and advancement by prestigious universities, largely predicated upon the concept of “publish or perish” or the belief that career longevity and success is tethered to the writing of obscure books and the publication of sources of authority for colleagues or other academicians to cite or rely upon, Gurland was committed to imparting to his students lessons and intellectual experiences intended to help them learn how to think for themselves and provide a positive impact upon their lives long after their formal educational experience ended. Using that benchmark, the film tells the story of a once-in-a-century teaching talent that used his platform to broaden the intellectual consciousness of generations of students, and a world that has been made better for it.
See the film trailer for Bronx Socrates below.
