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This past fall I taught a freshman seminar course based on Smith's _Wealth
of Nations_ and Plato's _Republic_. I teach at a state university that I
would not call unusually selective and my students ranged considerably in
ability levels. The version of the course I offered was organized around
the topic of division of labor and included more contemporary work related
to this including Ruth Cowan's _More Work for Mother_ and the Francine Blau
et al. volume on _The Economics of Women, Men, and Work_. I was initially
told by the university people who reviewed my course proposal that I should
put more emphasis on the contemporary material. But I actually found the
students got more engaged with the Smith and Plato, though this may have
been partly because I took these up first.
I would be interested in what experiences other list members have had in
teaching freshman seminars and in particular in teaching such "Great
Books/Social Science classic" texts. I certainly found the experience
quite worthwhile but I also certainly found that I have ample room for
improvement in teaching this kind of material in this kind of format.
More specifically, I would be interested in any comments on the following:
1)Ways of handling the "relevance" issue -- e.g. does Smith as a white male
who died over two hundred years ago speak at all to current concerns and in
particular why should a college freshman bother to struggle with trying to
make sense of what would appear to him or her as convoluted and obscure
writing. Let me say that I do have my own thoughts on this and despite
responses from students such as "Smith is really dumb" -- and I did get
that response, I am convinced based on my teaching experience that freshman
at a not unusually selective public university can still get a lot out of
reading Smith directly. However, I would be interested in how others might
have approached this issue.
2)Any suggestions for "companion" more recent works to pair up with such
classic authors? Though admittedly quite obvious, I am thinking if I do
this again, of pairing some chapters from Friedman's _Capitalism and
Freedom_ with Smith to show at reasonably recent applications of Smithian
principles to current social issues--e.g. Friedman's chapter on vouchers.
I am looking for something to pair with Plato's Republic. Popper's _The
Open Society and Its Enemies_ comes to mind and perhaps Alan Bloom's
_Closing of the American Mind_, but I am not sure these would establish the
best resonance for college freshman.
3)A specific issue regarding which edition of Smith's _Wealth of Nations_
to use: I ordered the Glasgow/Liberty Classic 2 volume edition at my book
store because it is incredibly cheap ($15 or so for both vols.) and seems
definitive. However, in preparing the course, I sometimes made use of the
Canaan edition which has capsule margin summaries for each paragraph. I
also loaned my copy of this to one of my students who didn't get around to
buying the Glasgow edition. He seemed to find the capsule margin summaries
helpful in plowing through it. So if I teach this again, I would probably
order the Canaan edtion, assuming it is still in print in paperback form
(as it has been
through the U.C. Press version that has a G.Stigler intro). I think the
capsule margin summaries will help freshmen cope with Smith's admittedly
quite long and convoluted sentences. Any observations on the value of the
Canaan capsule margin summaries for helping undergrads digest Smith?
4)Strategies for teaching freshmen in a seminar setting: How on the one
hand to avoid simply lecturing or pseudo-discussion (posing a discussion
question and finally just ending up lecturing on the question when student
responses are unsatisfactory). How on the other hand to avoid having the
class period degenerate into a bull-session discussing say the latest tv
reality show etc. What I plan to try in doing this again is to require
that students submit written statements BEFORE each class, circulated by
email, on that day's assigned reading; these statements would be graded and
constitute a significant part of their course grade. This to provide strong
incentives to read and read reasonably carefully the assigned material
before coming to class. I found that while students were interested in the
readings, they generally lapsed into not doing the assigned readings prior
to any given class; this obviously did not enhance the quality of
discussion. I found the basic tension was how on the one hand to encourage
open discussion while on the other hand making reasonable progress in
moving through and facilitating understanding of the text under
consideration.
4)In a freshman seminar should grades be given for class participation? A
number of my students insisted that since this was a seminar course they
should be graded on class participation. Not surprisingly, these tended to
be the more outgoing, vocal students. I offered to have them do peer
grading of each other's participation, but NO one wanted that-- they were
afraid of how they would grade each other. I ultimately gave in, and had a
modest class participation grade, though I still have no good sense as to
how to grade this, especially with first semester freshman. Any
suggestions?
I do think a course like this fills a real gap at state universities (or at
least at my state university), where many students would normally not get
many or any opportunities to read classic authors such as Smith and Plato
first hand, especially those not specifically majoring in say Economics,
Political theory, or Philosophy. However, I do sense there is a general
interest by lower level undergrads in a wide range of fields in
encountering such authors first hand. For example, one student who was
especially enthusiastic about Plato's _Republic_ ,and indeed seemed to have
read it in depth prior to coming into the course, was a computer science
major.
Any experiences others would care to share related to teaching social
science classics in a seminar setting or comments on some of the points
above would be welcome.
David Mitch
Department of Economics
University of Maryland Baltimore County
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