Last fall I picked up Zachary Karabell's book, Peace Be Upon You: Fourteen Centuries of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Conflict and Cooperation. It is both fascinating history and insightful commentary regarding precedents for peaceful co-existence standing in contrast to assumptions that religious divisions
inexorably lead to violence. Then a week or so ago I received as a birthday gift the novel, People of the Book, by Pulitizer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks. The book traces the fictional history of a 15th century Hebrew illuminated manuscript which at pivotal moments in history -- from the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain to the mid-1990's war in Bosnia -- is preserved by most unlikely heroes.
As you can guess, my enjoyment of People of the Book was greatly enhanced by my earlier reading of Peace Be Upon You. For that matter, add in No God But God by Reza Aslan, plus the memoir of a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust as a young girl that I also have read over the past year or so, and The Great Awakening by Jim Wallis, which I haven't yet found the time to read. Each of these books, fiction or non-fiction, expands my capacity for appreciating and understanding others.
It's the same broad hope that we have for our students, that they will find connections among the diverse subjects they encounter in their 125 or so credit hours. Often it seems students miss these connections even within specific programs of study, but the challenge is even greater in the general education curriculum. The idea of general education is that students engage in preparation that is both broad and, to some extent, shared. However, we do not do enough to help students integrate their experiences and to anticipate how a liberal education expands their capacity for understanding and appreciation.
In each discipline we must determine what is a thorough, coherent program of study. Across disciplines we can seek innovations that bring that kind of coherence to students' overall education at an institution with a public affairs mission. Here are a few ideas that can or are being implemented in our college:
- COM 115 and ENG 110 this fall will explicitly integrate the public affairs theme, "sustainability."
- IDS 110 and UHC 110 teachers can "prime" freshman to look for connections among their classes.
- Sections of different general education classes could be paired, with cohorts of students enrolling in the same sections simultaneously. For example, a section of ENG 110 could be paired with a large lecture section of THE 101 such that all of the 22 students in the ENG 110 section also are taking the same section of THE 101. That would allow the ENG 110 teacher to make explicit references to theatre topics, for example, or to give assignments that are somehow related to content in the theatre course. The same idea could be applied to sections of IDS 110.
- In all of our general education classes, we can look for ways of explicitly tying in the three aspects of our public affairs mission: community engagement, cultural competence, and ethical leadership.
- We can build into our courses opportunities, perhaps even requirements, for students to experience performances, exhibits, readings, and presentations presented within the college and to integrate them into discussion of course topics. Many of us routinely use film or fiction to engage students; why not concerts, plays, or art exhibits? For example, in December Dr. C. J. Maples will direct Twelve Angry Jurors. What a great opportunity to help students reflect on citizenship, justice, individual vs. societal ethics, communication, and other relevant issues.
I didn't set out to assemble a reading list of books tied to issues of Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations, though I suppose that has been one result of my meanderings. Since our students begin with reading lists provided by us, we should consider how we can make tackling those lists an experience more akin to making happy discoveries. As you prepare for classes this fall, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
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