From: Bill Ball
Date: 4/20/99
Time: 11:06:10 AM
Remote Name: 159.91.14.243
I would like to raise the topic of effectively teaching using current events. This issue is pointed to by the presentations of Frantzich and Glenn, and by the comments of Julian (below).
A formative experience in my own teaching philosophy was sitting in on the opening class of an intro. international relations course. This took place at the height of the Gulf War ramp-up. The instructor plodded along through a standard introduction and syllabus without once mentioning the war. All I could think to myself was that if I was teaching it, I'd throw out the syllabus, start with the morning paper and restructure the course on the fly around developments in the Gulf. It seemed like a real missed opportunity implant some relevant knowledge--I was a T.A. in Amer. Govt. at the time and several of my students had to leave school to serve in the conflict.
Since then, I've had to decide how to incorporate major events into several classes--most recently the impeachment trial into my American Political Thought course.
My general questions for discussion are these: when do you abandon/radically change your plans for a course to take advantage of major political events and the opportunities they offer for teaching? What are you risking in terms of course content when you do so? How do we balance rigor (through using carefully crafted readings and our own time-test lectures/assignments) with the currency, relevance, and excitement of the daily news?
Bill Ball