Okay, so slightly off topic, but one of the programs I’m involved in my day job is bringing Alasdair MacIntyre to campus this Tuesday, and I’m excited. He is, of course, one of the most famous philosophers in the Western world, and he’s been at the top of the field of ethics for four decades.…
We don’t advocate alcohol abuse (or any kind of abuse) at this blog, but sometimes “Drunk History” is pretty funny. Today’s Friday Funny is about William Henry Harrison and his short presidency. A war hero from 1812, a Whig, and a part of the taking of Native American lands, Harrison fits a lot of big…
Have you ever ranted at your students? Just flat-out told them they weren’t cutting it and needed to do better? Last week, as I was grading their third assignment, I realized that many of them weren’t improving in the way: (a) they should and (b) students in the past have done in this exact class.…
The Scholars Speak – Matthew BowmanToday’s guest post comes from Matthew Bowman, the author of The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith. Professor Bowman teaches at Hampden-Sydney College and is the associate editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. We asked him to reflect on teaching Mormonism in the U.S. history survey.…
by Nina McCune There are parts of the American survey that are overwhelming. How is it possible to teach any major conflict (Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI or WWII, Vietnam) or even minor scuffles in one or two weeks? How is it possible to capture intellectual, social, cultural, environmental, economic, political, and/or military histories surrounding…
In light of Ed’s brilliant piece about having his students evaluate his performance midway through the semester, the grey lady of newspapers published a whole piece on the subject of professorial assessment. It’s on page A-18 of today’s paper. The idea of both Ed’s and the New York Times’ pieces is that we spend a…
Together or Apart Katniss and Peeta(I think it’s Peeta; I haven’t seen the movie yet) Maybe this is a stretch, but today’s post is based on my quirky thinking about The Hunger Games. Not to spoil anything, but one question in the novel is whether the participants should band together or remain apart. In the…
Those who follow this blog know that I’m trying something new this semester. In my “Religion in American History” class, I’ve elected to have my students write five 3-4 page “response papers” in lieu of taking any kind of formal test. The idea is to see if I can help them improve their writing and…
Prisons in Antebellum America Today’s edition of The Scholars Speak comes from one of our favorite historians and people – Jennifer Graber. She is the author of The Furnace of Afflication: Prisons and Religion in Antebellum America and is currently writing a religious history of the Indian Wars of the mid and late nineteenth century.…
The Students SpeakSometimes I feel like Angela from NBC’s The Office. I like to be evaluated. Fans of the show will remember her excitement when Michael Scott would call her in for the annual “performance review.” But what I’ve never understood is that student evaluations are completed after the semester, and while they can benefit…
