Justice, Gods, and Standards

My 9:30 class (one I'm taking, not that I'm teaching) was mysteriously vacant today, so I'll go ahead and write now about today's Plato classes. (Those I teach.)

Now that I'm doing Tuesday-Thursday comp classes and have fewer days to teach, I compressed the entire trial of Socrates into today's discussion. For whatever reason (can't remember if a student initiated the diversion or if I did), we launched into a discussion of the gods and their relationship with Socrates's perceived role in the world. The big question that kept us occupied was why atheism was not only distasteful to Socrates's accusers but genuinely a crime. The discussion didn't take too long to veer into questions of modern theocratic states, in what ways and to what extent liberal tolerance of religion is better or worse than a legal system in which atheism is a crime.

We also talked a fair bit about the Crito and its assertion that only the opinions of good people ought to matter when making decisions. We talked about how that claim, harmless enough when one's mother exhorts one not to jump off cliffs that everyone is jumping off of, becomes quite dangerous politically when the prevailing system of government is democracy, in which the opinions of the good and the bad have equal weight so long as they're all property-owning males.

I finished with a bit about Paul, namely that the texts that seem to have influenced him most are the Hebrew Bible and Plato. I think we got there by means of talking about Socrates's disciples that he keeps mentioning throughout the Apology, and we finished by talking about what a profound influence that Socrates still has among humans.

I might post some more after I teach 11:00, but I might not. I'll just have to see.

Celebrity Lookalikes

First Day of Class

Well, the school year is back, and hopefully I'll be posting here with some regularity about my two freshman comp classes and the groovy things that we discuss.

Both groups (I teach two sections per semester) look promising. I did my standard opening day exercise--before I introduced myself, took roll, handed them a piece of paper, or anything else of the sort, I had them pair up, learn each other's names, and write down working definitions for "republican" and "liberal." Then I had each person tell me the other's name and define one of the two words. Then, after I introduced all of the websites and software involved with the class (I do all the grading and they do peer revision electronically), I returned to those two words on the board. Next to "republican" I wrote "Rome," and we talked about how that changed the meaning of the word. Then next to "liberal" I wrote "arts," and we talked about the changes there. Then I discussed how George Washington, Tom Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and the lot of 'em in 1776 would have considered themselves both republicans and liberals and how both of those words signified something anti-monarchical at the time.

As we did these things, both groups seemed interested, and I think we'll have a good time when we really get rolling. This Tuesday I'm just marking time until drop/add ends, but after that we'll start digging hard into the trial of Socrates.

Recent Pictures and Vids

In the back yard

Micah sings the hits

Three Days More

Well, the new school year is upon me.

Tomorrow I go in for EMMA re-orientation so that I can be slightly less lost than my freshmen when they submit their papers. Then I'm going to start Sidney's Arcadia.

Wednesday I go in to help with new TA orientation, assisting bright young teachers as they learn to grade with hard heads and soft hearts. Or at least to get away with arbitrariness.

Then Thursday, at 8:00 AM, another round of Plato's Republic kicks off. I've already contacted my students via email, added them all to my WebCT section, created an EMMA space for them, and gotten two lesson plans outlined.

Once we get into some Plato texts, expect about two posts a week for the course of the semester. Teaching Republic last year led me to all kinds of good thoughts, and I imagine similar things will happen this year.

That's right, readers! Come back!