The Singer and some singer.

Brace yourself! Princeton professor and ethics rockstar Peter Singer is coming to George Washington University to give a talk.  He may also be hawking a book.  Singer/actress Mandy Moore will be there as well.  I'm still working on why.

I first studied Singer in grad school.  We read his Animal Liberation in an environmental ethics class.  Though we never met, he's on the editorial board for Ethics, Policy & Environment. 

When I was the managing editor, I had to send out an email invitation to everyone on the board for a little mixer we were throwing.  I was a giddy as a school girl when I saw his reply email in my inbox. He couldn't make it.

I also use a textbook that he edited along with Helga Kuhse in my biomedical ethics course at NVCC.  The students seem to enjoy it.  I think that he makes the material accessible.

So, I'm excited to see him speak.  My students don't seem as enamored, but I've offered extra-credit to anybody that makes it.

My girlfriend likewise lacks the proper interest.  Sadly, I lack to authority to grant her extra-credit.

Anyway, I'll post a summary after the the talk.

Best,

Chris

Eastern Thought Class

Thus far, I've only taught three different courses at Northern Virginia Community College (Nova): Introduction to Philosophy I, Introduction to Philosophy II, and Biomedical Ethics. I've taught each course multiple times, and I've loved it.  The old adage that teaching a subject is the best way to learn it is certainly true for me.  Nothing I had ever done in the past had honed my understanding of the classics of Western philosophy the way that teaching it has.  Never wanting to let your students down is a great motivator, and you need to be ready for any question they can come up with.  So, these courses are dear to me.  I hope that I never lose to opportunity to teach them.  

Having said that, I would relish the chance to broaden my horizons by expanding the variety of my courses taught. Nova offers other philosophy courses, but they're safely within the talons of other professors who have greater seniority than I.  So, I need to wait for them to move on. Alas, I'm not the patient type. I guess that I could kill one or two of them, but that's a bit Machiavellian for my taste. 

I needed a solution that was quicker than waiting for people to move or retire, and less ethically challenging than murder.  The idea of adding a new course to our course catalog seemed the best solution.  A new course isn't already in another professor's course rotation. Plus, I could create a class that I truly desire to teach.

So, I set about to learn how to add a course.  I quickly discovered that there are two ways to add a class to the Nova catalog.  The first is to create the course from scratch.  This requires getting it approved by the Virginia Board of Education.  The fine people who described this option to me assured me that this would be a massive waste of time.  The second option was to find a class that was already in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), and then getting it approved for Nova.  This is the easier path, because if it's in the VCSS course catalog it has already been approved by the Board of Education. 

Bounding with optimism, I peeped the VCCS course catalog. I quick discovered that the list was mostly of classes already offered by Nova. Then, it appeared as out of nowhere: PHI 260 Eastern Thought. My heart opened.

There was a time when Eastern philosophy was everything for my younger and more misanthropic mind.  The thought of being able to pass all that knowledge on to new misanthropic students is just what I was searching for.

So.... now it's all about the process of getting approval. I wrote a course description.  My assistant dean and department dean are on-board.  I'm still convincing some staff outside of our department.

I think that we'll get it.  I suspect that I'll be teaching it for the first time Fall 2016.

I'll keep you posted!

Best,


Chris