Religious Studies News

What do I want from students? I want them to be curious about the human family, past and present. I want them to be interested in thinkers and ideas, traditions and practices, art and narratives that are not their own. I want them to know the confidence that comes with good research skills, using electronic resources from the library for fun and profit, evaluating websites with a discerning eye. I want more and more student evaluations that read, “I want to travel, to explore other cultures, to further expand my world.”

I conclude my course descriptions with a list of learning outcomes — abilities to evaluate websites, to locate library resources, to use scholarly research, to collaborate with others, to read for sense and meaning, to create and present a project using film. But my biggest hope, my most cherished outcome for students, is this: To grow as curious, respectful, interested, and mature citizens of our global village. Palmer identifies the six paradoxes of the learning space where this sort of growth can happen, along with Walvoord’s “care, clarity, and conversation.”

The conventional wisdom among students about general education courses is that they are a necessary and often unwelcome step to getting a degree. Many faculty shy away from teaching general education courses because the students are not always committed or focused. But I find that the future engineers and computer scientists who sit in my classrooms have a chance to do something different — and perhaps more meaningful — in my classes. One student remarked, “Projects, labs, sleep: that’s all I do otherwise. I come here for a breath of fresh air.” Over and over I have heard that there’s a largeness, a liberality, an expansiveness that students feel in the classroom. “It’s a place for a big sigh,” one student commented, and others agreed. General education classes might be one place where state university students can tie in who they are with what they do.