Evan McMullin

Here’s an excerpt from a newsletter I sent out earlier this month: Dedicated readers of this newsletter know that Meghan Daum is one of my favorite writers. Someone had recommended I read Daum’s essay, “My Misspent Youth,” which is about her own indebtedness in her 20s. My Misspent Youth” now, I connect the dots between Daum’s persona as a young, aspiring New York writer and the characters who populate the films of Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. The college universe she describes in the essay is the universe of so many Baumbach characters, especially the louche rich kids living in that Chinatown apartment in “Frances Ha.

A science faculty member said that if he asks direct questions in class and students raise their hands and give the right answer, then that’s a successful discussion. Ending class with a “minute paper” can cement the day’s learning, provide an opportunity for quieter students to let you know what they’re thinking, and set the stage for the next class meeting’s discussion. Second, in order to make the classroom feel like a space where it’s OK to make the mistakes that learning requires, I spent a full week of class time meeting with students in pairs, in the classroom, just to talk about anything. If this seems like a “waste” of class time, I ask you to consider how much class time I might have wasted in unproductive, painful silence over the rest of the semester if I hadn’t tried to foster a better learning community.

In the world of Catholic higher education, the Core curriculum review occurring at Notre Dame is getting a lot of attention, especially because there is speculation that the committee will remove the standard requirement that all students take two courses in theology. But some of what is being said by people on my “side” of the debate over theology’s place in ND’s curriculum is unlikely to convince anyone on the curriculum committee itself. I can say this because for the past two years, I chaired the committee that is reviewing the Core curriculum at King’s College. I may be able to address them later, especially once I’m through reading Chad Wellmon’s book, Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University.)

This semester I am attempting two very different experiments in my classes, though both aim to foster greater student engagement with course material. One experiment — which I will write more about later — involves developing a role-playing scenario modeled on Reacting to the Past to teach the intellectual and political conflicts of the Reformation in 16th century European Christianity. The other is to require students in my Core course, Theology of Work, to tweet about their reading and writing between classes. First, I had an exchange via Twitter with a couple of bloggers who are, like me, interested in how to make theological sense of work.