COMMENTARY

Faculty & Administrators

"I have found teaching a 'Reacting' Seminar to be one of the best educational things I have done in the past 25 years. I have never seen first-year students so engaged in discussion, research, and intellectual conversation as I have in the seminar this fall. Keeping up with their strategies and plans, as they seek to accomplish their 'victory objectives' has me deeply engaged as well. It's been a great experience for all of us."  —Frank G. Kirkpatrick, Ellsworth Morton Tracey Lecturer and Professor of Religion, Trinity College

"Reacting to the Past' has made a major impression on campus life.  Students are debating the issues of Athenian democracy or Confucian propriety over dinner and in their dorms.  Shy students speak, and assertive students lead.  Classes never end on time, more papers are written than are assigned, and the quality of the work is among the best I have ever seen."  —J. Patrick Coby, Professor of Government, Smith College

"I'm not sure I've ever had a classroom full of first-year non-majors chuckling about a reference to the Iliad."            —Nicolas Proctor, Associate Professor of History, Simpson College

"I have never seen students this engaged. They write more than the assignments require; everyone, shy or not, participates vigorously in the debates. They read important texts with real understanding, making complex arguments and ideas their own."  —Larry Carver, Doyle Professor of Western Civilization and Director of the Liberal Arts Honors Programs,  University of Texas at Austin, Chronicle Review (Nov. 12, 2004)