Dear Facebook friends. If you use Facebook in order to keep up with the significant things that are happening in your friends lives, I really hope youll read this post. If youre just here for the cat memes and shallow commentary on Ferguson, please keep scrolling. Many of us use this space to post finish line photos, share bathroom selfies with six-pack abs exposed, and tag ourselves at airports to let everyone else know about exotic world travel. Thats fine. Today, I want to brag about something important to me. A couple weeks ago I accomplished something that Id been dreaming of doing since I was 16. In my junior year of high school, I was lucky enough to take a class (taught by Mr. Matt Gartner) where I was exposed to the likes of Plato, Dostoevsky, and Kant. We essentially covered metaethics, normative ethics, and moral psychology, although those technical terms were not used. This class showed me HOW to think more critically about the really important questions -- what is the right thing to do, what is the good life, what does it mean to be a good person, and so on. This was powerful stuff. I decided that I, too, wanted to influence young minds in this way. I decided to become a Philosophy professor. Since then its been a weird path, full of speed bumps, cliffs, broken bridges, evil trolls, and more. But ultimately, I was given the opportunity to teach a class at Florida State called Ethical Issues and Life Choices during the second half of this summer. I had 140 students and it was challenging and exhausting (luckily I had the help of two TAs). I didnt quite put the syllabus together until the week before, and so I was reading and preparing for each lecture the morning of. (Class was every day for 6 weeks.) But, every day, once class started I really felt like I came alive. Not every lecture was a five star performance, but I surprised myself at how well I did. And it was really really fun. Most philosophy is completely irrelevant to most normal folks lives, and I worked hard to make sure this class was different. This class wasnt about engaging in intellectual exercises and scoring a good grade. I wanted young folks to think more carefully and critically about important problems in our world, and come out with new or better informed opinions. Some of the things I covered: food ethics, immigration policy, the drug war, positive psychology (we talked a lot about flow states!), cognitive enhancement, and more. I tried to share many of my own personal experiences, to connect the material to real life. I had guest speakers cover topics that I didnt feel I could do justice to (e.g., veganism, feminism). I even squeezed in some Nietzsche, who helped solidify my interest in moral philosophy when I studied him under Dr. Thomas Carson as an undergrad. Student engagement and performance wasnt perfect and I failed plenty of people (without an ounce of guilt). But thats to be expected. I did get a lot of positive feedback from students and others who stopped by the class. I managed to get a lot of people rethinking important issues and even making changes to their lives. One student invited me to take a walk around campus just to talk about life, and I was able to give him advice on an ethical problem in his own life. Even further, I learned a lot about myself, my talents, and my passions. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that I will be a Philosophy professor when I grow up (not just because its highly unlikely that Ill ever grow up at all). Higher education is in a sad state and Ive developed quite a distaste for academia, but those are issues for another day. But, no worries. I dont need a position in a stuffy academic department in order to teach, speak, influence others, and do what makes me come alive.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 00:37:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015