----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 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 ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]