One of the pleasant surprises of the new semester, now four weeks old, is that the discussions in all of my classes have arguably been the best in recent memory.
Students not only are ready to discuss on all sorts of topics, they also are showing a willingness to be honest and “go deep” about themselves in ways I have seldom experienced. On some days, my classes are essentially teaching themselves with little direction from me. All I can say is: Thanks, Covid-19! In my “Current Problems in Ethics” course last Thursday, for instance, my students were shocked by how directly relevant a novel about a 17th century village in England was to their daily lives. I’m teaching this course primarily through literature, short stories and excerpts from novels that serve as introductions to the various moral issues and quandaries that we are studying. After several classes of stories raising questions about moral duties between family members, particularly between parents and children, we moved to the larger question of What do we owe each other morally just because of our shared humanity, even if we are not family or friends? One of the texts I assigned to frame the discussion was a several page excerpt in the large anthology we are using from Geraldine Brooks’ 2001 novel Year of Wonders. The subtitle of the novel is “A Novel of the Plague,” a clue that this story has immediate relevance to our current circumstances. The novel is based on actual events that took place in Eyem, a small village of lead miners and hill farmers in Derbyshire, in 1665 during an outbreak of the bubonic plague.
Although I have taught this course many times, this is the first time I’ve taught it in a couple of years. As I reviewed the text before class, I thought “Holy crap! I can’t wait to see what the students do with this!” They didn’t disappoint.
About The Author
Harrison Okafor
editor
Judith is a believer, a lover of Christ and a Gospel freak person. A passionate gospel blogger and press writer. I work with GospelHitsNaija.net Media, no 1 Gospel music platform.
