Then, mediocrity will - as usual - prevail... stoneking ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Kibler <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 9:53 AM Subject: Re: Pedagogical Question > unfortunately, one of us must prevail, and a governing course description will result. I am happy to teach and let teach, but my colleague is not. > > >>> William Stoneking <[log in to unmask]> 09/01 8:40 AM >>> > TEACH WHATEVER YOU LIKE... LONG AS YOU "MAKE IT NEW" > > stoneking > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Robert Kibler <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 9:29 AM > Subject: Pedagogical Question > > > > Here at VCSU, a colleague and I are at odds over how to teach a 200 level > Humanities course. He thinks that the course ought to be based on a book > that provides an overview of events, so that it can quickly pass through > literary and philosophical events from the Mesopotamians to present day. I > say that it is impossible to teach everything, and that such an approach > leaves students with very little access to the past. For my part, I further > suggest that they are better off reading key bits of primary-if-translated > texts that are conceptually rather than chronologically dependent. My > feeling is that if you take these primary texts and treat them according to > overarching themes--ones that are vital in all cultures in time and > space--themes such as the gods, love, leadership, and philosophy--then the > students get both a sense of the past that delivers not only the Humanities, > but does so in a way that gives them individual access to ancient and > classical Greece, imperial Rome, the anglo-saxon and then the norman > influenced middle ages, and then the renaissance. My colleague argues that > I omit too much important cultural information, and I argue that his > approach does not admit enough students to the Humanities--that it just > gives them a sense of what somebody else says about a lot of events. Under > my thematic approach, we read bits from the following, and ask what it says > about the four themes: > > Homeric Hymns, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Sappho, Pindar, The Pre-Socratics, > The Republic, Parmenides, Thucydide's Melian Dialogue, and all of Antigone, > to get a sense of the Greeks. I also lecture on Greek architecture and > politics. For the Romans, we read from the Aeneid, the Roman > Elegists--Catullus, Propertius, Sulpicia, Caesar's Gallic Wars, and Tacitus' > Germania. For the anglo-saxons, we read Widsith, Deor, Seafarer, Battle of > Maldon, the Dream of the Cross, and all of Beowulf. We read and translate a > dozen Middle English lyrics, and read Chaucer's Prologue, and his Miller's > Tale in Middle English. We read a Shakespeare play, and we read bits from > Machiavelli. > > My colleague uses a book by a man named Bishop, which has lots of > illustrations and gives very small snippets from many great works--but > mostly, it is a telling of the tale of Western Civilization (the bent of the > course) by one expert to the uninitiated. The other expert--my collegue, > fills in the gaps. Between the two of them, they cover a lot of territory, > and bring students up to the present. Yet for all of that, as my step-father > says--neither my colleague's course or my own introduce the 2nd Law of > Thermodynamics--essential, in his opinion. > > I might also mention that there is a required second Humanities course > that emphasizes music and art. These courses are taught by faculty who kind > of begin their approach to music and art in the 17 and 18th centuries--and > one of them veers off into North American Indian culture--the sort of > veering that a thematic approach, I think, would allow. > > This is a 200 level course, has 40 students in a section, and very few > of them English or History majors. If you had to choose between my approach > and my colleagues, which would you choose and why? Further, what is your own > general sense about how such a course ought to be taught, to such a > population? > > >