First Day of Class
Jan. 10th, 2012 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolven7So, sometime in the past two weeks, I went from having 19 students in my Tuesday/Thursday class to having 35. That is to say, my class is completely full.
It was a short day, today. We went over the syllabus, introduced ourselves, and I talked to them about what I was hoping to impart to them through the class: A sense of what philosophy can do, good and bad, and a sense for the kinds of questions philosophy can help us ask, and what the world looks like, when we answer those questions, through those lenses.
They mostly seemed receptive, and I let them go at around 7.10pm. Short first day.Thing is, I had one student stay after to ask me about something he'd read in the text (already), something about Plato and Ethics, which got into a discussion about deontology and consequentialism. Then he asked me why I'd said that Zen Buddhism was going to be the hardest thing they studied, and I did my best to tell him about paradox, contradiction, no-mind, pure consciousness, and the difference between Mahayana and Zen. In about 20 minutes.
The amount of time I talked to him, there, was about equal to the scheduled class time. Then he asked me if I minded if he read ahead in the book. HAH!
So i know at least one student is interested in what we're doing.
Before all this, I sat in the Part-Time Instructors' Office, figuring out the ins and outs of the network and the printer.
Today? It was a pretty great day.
It was a short day, today. We went over the syllabus, introduced ourselves, and I talked to them about what I was hoping to impart to them through the class: A sense of what philosophy can do, good and bad, and a sense for the kinds of questions philosophy can help us ask, and what the world looks like, when we answer those questions, through those lenses.
They mostly seemed receptive, and I let them go at around 7.10pm. Short first day.Thing is, I had one student stay after to ask me about something he'd read in the text (already), something about Plato and Ethics, which got into a discussion about deontology and consequentialism. Then he asked me why I'd said that Zen Buddhism was going to be the hardest thing they studied, and I did my best to tell him about paradox, contradiction, no-mind, pure consciousness, and the difference between Mahayana and Zen. In about 20 minutes.
The amount of time I talked to him, there, was about equal to the scheduled class time. Then he asked me if I minded if he read ahead in the book. HAH!
So i know at least one student is interested in what we're doing.
Before all this, I sat in the Part-Time Instructors' Office, figuring out the ins and outs of the network and the printer.
Today? It was a pretty great day.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-11 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-11 10:29 am (UTC)btw, I've never taken a philosophy course before, but I would totally take yours. I think you would do a great job of teaching the basics as well as why they're important.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 12:40 am (UTC)I have to say, I would love to start a school with all of my friends. I would love not only teaching with you people, but also learning from you. I think you would all have something fucking fantastic to impart.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-11 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-11 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-11 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 12:40 am (UTC)