University of La Verne’s John Bartelt Makes List of Highest Rated University Professors
Dr. John Bartelt keeps a box of tissue in every class. It is more than handy – it is necessary – for the emotional journeys upon which he leads his students.
The long-time University of La Verne professor of education says his students discover what drives them by unpacking their feelings, a process that often leads to tears, confessions, and hugs.
The approach has long made Bartelt beloved by his students, and now it is earning him national acclaim. The website Rate My Professors has ranked him 23rd on its 2015-16 list of Highest Rated University Professors, a list compiled based on ratings from students.
“This one is nice because it is student-driven and that means more to me than something that is peer driven,” he said.
Rate My Professors includes ratings for more than 1.6 million professors from colleges and universities across the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Bartelt has taught at the University of La Verne for 22 years. Though he is grounded in his career now, wanderlust guided him before he found his calling as a teacher.
The son of a foreign service diplomat, Bartelt traveled the world until he was 15 years old. As an adult, he programmed computers, helped terminally-ill children in hospices, acted and directed in community theater and composed music for gaming companies, among other jobs. He bounced around until he spotted an advertisement for a teaching job at the University of La Verne in Santa Maria.
As an adjunct professor for 12 years, he kept on moving. He taught eight or nine classes at a time at various regional campuses stretching across Southern California.
“I was travelling 3,000 miles a month, spending five nights a week in motels. It was just like being a rock star without the fame and fortune,” he said.
He accepted a full-time faculty position on the main campus in 2001. After a few years, he realized he had found his home.
“This is the first time I thought, ‘I might stick with this and make this a career,’” he said.
He teaches diversity; foundations in education and education technology for graduate students; First Year La Verne Experience (FLEX) classes; and he co-teaches human sexuality with his wife, Linda.
Students say Bartelt stands out as a teacher because he not only shows aspiring teachers how to excel in the classroom, but he helps them become better people. They are encouraged to share their personal stories in class, and that reflection helps them better understand the root of their passion. It is an approach that can become emotional, Bartelt says.
“Nine out of 10 classes everybody cries,” he said. “We have a Kleenex box in every class.”
Sergio Salazar, who took Bartelt’s “Diversity, Interaction, and the Learning Process” course, said his emphasis on reflection sets him apart.
“His focus on us finding what intrinsically motivates us makes his approach to teaching really stand out,” he said.
Jessica Larson, an Ontario High School drama teacher who is pursuing a teaching master’s degree at the University of La Verne, says Bartelt shares the saying, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” with aspiring teachers.
She says he also encourages creativity in his educational courses. Larson recalls an assignment where students were asked to present seven successes in their lives, so some students brought paintings, while others wrote songs.
“It’s something in the higher-level academia world that we sometimes forget – that we’re creative beings,” she said.
