Again round 1980, once I was a philosophy professor at Wheaton School in Illinois, I launched a course on work and leisure, and, in 2015, I had the event to resume instructing on that topic as a professor of Christian philosophy and ethics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. At Wheaton, the subject stirred curiosity off campus in addition to on, and I used to be invited to deal with it in a wide range of venues, e.g., a ski lodge in Breckenridge, Colorado and a church close to Water Tower Place in Chicago. It’s been clear that the subject material is instantly participating to a large spectrum of individuals.
The primary time I taught it at Southern was on the normal mannequin, with once-a-week, three-hour, face-to-face instruction all through the time period. The second time round, the course was of hybrid building, with two days on campus preceded by a spread of actions, a few of which have been new to the course. Once I was drawing up the hybrid model, it appeared like a good suggestion to have college students take transient “selfie” telephone movies to share with classmates and elicit responses. I used to be freshly tuned up on work/leisure video clips, having shot dozens of them across the nation (from DC to Detroit to Dallas and to a few cities in Indonesia) and the techies on campus instructed the scholars easy methods to hyperlink their productions to our educational software program. Once more, it appeared like a good suggestion, nevertheless it proved unwieldy, with hit-or-miss postings and numerous college students falling behind.
I remorse dropping the obituary notes, for these mini-biographies offered nice profession overviews. However I did persist with two first-version necessities that proved to be intriguing and even edifying—“Exterior Testimony” and “Web page of Private Resolve.” The previous required interviews with acquaintances “out on the planet,” asking them to take inventory of their work life—satisfactions and disappointments, functions and challenges, and the stewardship of their callings. The second had the scholars apply the teachings of the course to what lay forward of them, each within the office and of their leisure selections. A lot of them instructed me how gratifying these workout routines have been, particularly in gentle of the course content material.
Every time I’ve taught this course, I’ve labored inside a Christian setting, so we made good use of theology, church historical past, and Christian ethics, e.g., in our examine of monasticism, Luther’s instructing on the sacredness of all vocations, Sabbath relaxation, and tips for the selection of leisure. However as this syllabus’s course “Rationale” notes, the subject attracts all kinds of secular materials into the dialog, e.g., Kant on drudgery; Jefferson on agriculturalism; Steinbeck on Dustbowl migrants; The Workplace on TV; and Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter.
An overarching query all through the course was whether or not we labored in order that we would relaxation or, reasonably, rested in order that we would get again to work. Is it our function to “Get all we will, can all we get, and sit on our cans”? Or is it to by no means fully retire so long as we stay on earth?
The common course, represented by the syllabus you see right here, had no movies, however that each one modified after we went on-line for a hybrid class, an choice a lot inspired by the varsity. By the point we launched the latter, I used to be capable of submit sixty-nine movies, a dozen shot on campus with a crew, primarily lectures interspersed with photographs, whether or not the lyrics to a piece tune or a photograph of considered one of our writers. The opposite fifty-odd movies traced my travels, with tripod or selfie stick in hand.
Alongside the way in which I’d interviewed a stay-at-home mother, a resort housekeeper, a author/speaker whose important theme was TGIM (“Thank God It’s Monday”), catastrophe reduction volunteers, and residents of an assisted-living facility; I delivered impromptu lectures in entrance of the primary Ford meeting plant in Highland Park, Michigan and getting ready to an enormous limestone quarry close to Bloomington, Indiana (suppose the film, Breaking Away); and I walked via a furnishings manufacturing unit in Dumas, Arkansas in addition to a riverfront municipal playground in Owensboro, Kentucky.
I obtained into this “film” enterprise by accident. On a seminary mission journey to Detroit, we helped some ministers up that manner by capturing brief movies of locations needing help from the Bible Belt. A few of what we shot was “Break Porn,” photographs of deserted and run-down once-great buildings, such because the outdated Packard Plant. However we additionally filmed indicators of recent life, comparable to Comerica Park, the place the Tigers play. And as we made our manner down Woodward Avenue previous Wayne State College, we got here to the Detroit Institute of Arts, which I used to frequent as a child on visits to my maternal grandparents. It hit me that I’d shoot somewhat footage to fold into an internet aesthetics course I used to be constructing with the tech crew again on campus. So I had one of many college students observe me gallery to gallery with the little, almost-lipstick-sized digital camera they’d offered me.
Once I obtained again to the varsity, I requested if I might perhaps use that footage, and their response was, “Are you kidding? Sure!” It was like catnip to them. And proper off, they ordered me a flip-screen digital digital camera, tripod, and lavalier, urging me to take them with me wherever I went. So I used to be off to the races, supplying them materials from The Treasury in Petra, Jordan (as seen in Raiders of the Misplaced Ark); the efficiency of buskers in San Diego’s Balboa Park and the plaza in entrance of Boston’s Faneuil Corridor; the inside of “Graceland II” in Holly Springs, Mississippi, filled with kitschy Elvis memorabilia; the Ole Miss campus, with its many Greek columns, mirrored within the faculty’s emblem; massive murals on downtown buildings in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in addition to on the Ohio River flood wall in Paducah, Kentucky. These have been well-received within the aesthetics course, so extending the follow to the Work and Leisure course was pure.
Two different fast phrases on pedagogy: 1. Since my days as a philosophy prof at Wheaton, I’ve given the scholars open-book, open-note (however not open-neighbor) clippings finals, described within the syllabus featured right here; they’ve been very useful in spreading out the curve, with some college students actually “getting it,” and others not a lot; 2. This syllabus gives hyperlinks to on-line materials, and these readings have confirmed to be very useful in a wide range of programs, offering an ancillary anthology, with no value to the scholars.
In closing, I assumed you may like a take a look at a couple of photographs drawn from the work & leisure course movies:
And I additionally present the entrance pages from two of my clippings finals in different programs.
The Syllabus Showcase of the APA Weblog is designed to share insights into the syllabi of philosophy educators. We embrace syllabi of their authentic, unedited format that showcase all kinds of philosophy lessons. We might love so that you can be part of this venture. Please contact Sequence Editor, Dr. Matt Deaton through MattDeaton.com or Editor of the Instructing Beat, Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall through sabrinamisirhiralall@apaonline.org with potential submissions.
Mark Coppenger
Mark Coppenger (BA, Ouachita; PhD Vanderbilt; MDiv, Southwestern) has taught philosophy at numerous schools and seminaries, and in addition served as an Military officer and pastor. An excellent introduction to his work is accessible at his web site, markcoppenger.com. Two new books are forthcoming this spring—Apologetical Aesthetics (Wipf and Inventory), that includes a dozen of his doctoral college students in theology and the humanities, and a commissioned work from the Scottish writer, Christian Focus (If Christianity Is So Good, Why Are Christians So Unhealthy?).
