Introduction Questions, The Humanities

I. 

My classes put the arguments of students in the center stage. But in a community college, mid-western, urban environment, students are reluctant to share express their thoughts and criticize others. Often, this is simply because they do not firmly grasp the difference between their views and others. Like in a game, firm rules of behavior and conversation do not limit, but enhance confidence and ability.

To engender the mood of argument and discussion, I begin each semester with student introductions. Like many other classes, the first thing they state is their name and why they chose to take the class. To encourage honesty, I state that “to fulfill my humanities requirement” is a perfectly legitimate answer. 

Then, the game becomes exciting. The next questions they must answer (although they are not forced) strike at thei beliefs that are relevant to the class. In Philosophy of Religion, they must answer #1, but then choose at least one more:

1. How would you describe your religious beliefs (atheist, theist, agnostic, pantheist, Christian, Wiccan…however they feel best describes their situation). 

2. Do you believe that only one religion is correct, that there are some true religions and other false ones but that a person should focus on one, or that all religions contain some aspect of truth and a true seeker will study them all? (avoid for atheists)

3. Is there a life after death? Does the world contain some non-physical beings?

4. Does morality exist? Is it determined by God, or does God merely recognize what is good and evil?

And then, we step it up a further notch. In the third phase of a student’s introduction, they are allowed to ask a question of myself, or of anyone else in the class. Furthermore, anyone has the freedom to ask the introducing student a question.

Students are lukewarm at first, but in every case, the introductions last two or three days. By the end, the class is biting at the bit to argue.  True, the affect wears off throughout the semester, but it is more easily revived now that the scene is set.

In the past, I think of the questions a few minutes before class began. Now, I find value in considering the questions more thoroughly.  

II. The Humanities

I am teaching a new class this semester: Humanities: Philosophy, Drama, Music.  The layout of the class is basically up to me to decide. It is obviously not my most comfortable realm. However, I have been diving into Aristotle’s Poetics and intellectual history texts and I’ve been having some good ideas. The main theme is tragedy. Only at the end, with Stoppard’s Rosencrantz, do we touch on comedy, but it is a comedy that is a commentary on tragedy. However, we must keep in mind that this is not a Drama class, or a Philosophy or Music class, but a Humanities class. Humanities is often conceived as an umbrella term for a number of different subjects, and indeed, when speaking loosely, that is apt. However, it is a discipline unto itself, and I want to teach this class as a Humanities class, not as three distinct classes crammed into one survey class. 

The Humanities as a discipline, as originally conceived by the likes of Erasmus in the 15th century, is a discipline for understanding the power of humanity. It holds as its primary assumption that humanity has tremendous potential, that it can understand the world with proper effort and method, and that it expands through the study of the liberal arts. It believes freedom of thought is not easily attained but requires training, and that human nature can be improved, and even perfected. Certainly, the goals of the humanities have sobered a bit since then, but the essence is the same: humans have great unrealized potential, and that in order to realize this potential, one must embrace action, reflection, independance, and free thought. 

I want to communicate this to my students immediately, and use this as a launch pad for the semester. I see visions of a glorious speech I deliver on the first day, only for my students to passively listen and forgeting everything, unaffected.

And so, with all classes, I resort to the method of annoying, argument inducing questions to get the class moving. But what shall these be?

1. What does it mean to be human?

2. What are the greatest virtues of humanity?

3. Are all people equal? (what do you mean by equal?)  Or, in what way are people not equal. 

4. What are the most valuable types of freedom?

5. If you had the very last copy of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and were given the choice between saving it or the life of an innocent ten year old child, what would you choose?

6. What sorts of factors restrict humanity, or a human, from gaining its full potential?