What kind of meaningful learning goes on when an introverted and intuitive traditional professor imparts his knowledge to an extroverted student of the new wave generation? In a project exploring how teaching personalities influence student learning, a traditional professor of literature and a "new wave" (defined as characterized by improvisation and subjective symbolism) female student were interviewed. The traditionalist emphasis is to understand the intentions and achievements of the author. The subject, Professor A, felt responsible for bringing order to the chaos of ideas within the student's mind after earch reading assignment. Judith, Professor A's "new wave" student, was concerned with what the literature meant. The traditional ideology that the teacher knows the "real" meaning of the text--that the student's personal response has little value for the student's learning experience--caused tension to surface with Judith and thus gave direction to the project. David Bleich and others believe that this tension between traditional methodology and the students' desires to share thoughts and feelings can be resolved in favor of reader response centered teaching. A reader-centered course that also stresses theoretical and critical issues about interpretation directs students toward issues of the readability of texts, the influence of culture, history, and gender relations. Teachers of literature can communicate ideas which are valid, as well as passions and interests, without making rigid, narrow-minded demands, and make the literature, whatever literature it is, exciting and relevant for today's students. (RAE)