In this article, the author shares his experience with Burent Arel, an established composer of orchestral, chamber, and classical electronic music. At first, the author found the music of the 20th century deeply disturbing. Yet, Professor Arel converted him and his skepticism into evangelical fervor. Finally understanding the role of the artist in the late-20th-century Western world under the tutelage of Professor Arel, the author became a champion of modern music, painting, sculpture, architecture, and literature to the same skeptics with whom he had been for so long smugly "at home." He argues that if educators give their several disciplines the respect--indeed, the veneration--they're due, they have every right to expect equal regard for them from their students.