In her classes she found that her most fervent Islamic students were the most obsessed with Western pop culture, and that everyone was interested in the Oscars.
The echoes were everywhere: the students' fervent desire for democracy, their restraint and calm order; even the earnest, adolescent faces of the leaders, Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, recalled those of the Tiananmen leaders, Wang Dan and Chai Ling.
Her children, though, are fervent patriots, joining in student marches and making speeches; as rhetoric becomes revolution, her son joins a guerrilla group and her daughter decamps to Calcutta to write tracts exposing the atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army.
And so, in the staff dragnet, Lincoln hosted "open calls" akin to theatrical casting scrums, and Mr. Valenti, Mr. Benno and Mr. Novello trekked up to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., to make a fervent pitch to 30 students.
There are also stories about those who expect their students to become fervent acolytes, reverentially deferring to supervisory superior intellect and accomplishments long after graduation.
My fervent hope is that any students who are still protesting the class will return — and that, while recognizing our limitations, they will learn from us what they can.
