THOUGHTS ON LISA DE BOER'S COMMENTS ON 'PERFORMING AND INTERPRETING THE ARTS'
1) Summer preparation can be very helpful. Has Gabriel thought about foundations that could be laid, or questions that could be animated through summer assignments? Perhaps he wants to assign a "cluster" of objects to groups of students--a poem or two, some images, a building, and have them work up some research, observations and questions.
A fine suggestion, I would be inclined to set work that expanded their summer reading and then required them to prove they had done it. I suggest having them critique a piece of art using their summer reading and use this assignment as a jumping-off point for the first classroom meeting.
2) I think students could benefit from a series of core questions that could be applied to all the artistic phenomena that will be encountered. These are already implicit in the "Faith, Witness, Belief" focus, but might be pointed to more directly to get students started. Common themes or questions could also help them make connections across media--how some romantic poetry, some types of landscape painting, and particular public spaces, for example, might all be pointing in the same direction. This would also set the stage for synthesis assignments.
Agreed. I will add a section to the syllabus accordingly.
3) The interpretive journal assignment will need some very specific direction to be useful. Otherwise you get a lot of "I really liked X" and "I really hated Y" without much probing of what is triggering those responses, what they might signify, and whether any attempt has been made to properly understand the object/poem/site in the first place. This is the voice of experience speaking here--and the unreflective character of unstructured writing has only increased over past EuroSems. (As has the insistence that unstructured responses are more authentic and valuable than structured, synthetic writing!)
This is an invaluable observation. Facebook-style 'like' and 'dislike' buttons will not be adequate, and structured, synthetic responses are required. I am concerned about how writing is done, howeber. Repeatedly over the years I have watched students on travel courses frankly disrespecting written assignments and attempting to subvert them by internet assembled paragraphs, choosing deliberately obscure topics to elude scrutiny and other ruses. This is not intended as a critique of Westmont or the other university students with whom I travel! Rather it's the nature of travel and its impact on study. Even one previous professor accompanying something as well organised as Westmont's own ES has commented that it occasionally struck them as 'educational dysfunction'. This is the big downside of the incredible opportunity we have.
While students will be required to write synthetically in their journals, something I feel will happen more naturally in the intervals we have than essay writing, I am not convinced that very much more written work can be done for this course. I would like to transfer a good part of the synthesis work to oral interviews with the students on their journals, although on reflection I should accept written submissions as part of these interviews, especially where the student wants to support their presentation with an extended quote from their journal.
I would also like to recommend that set but unstructured classroom quiet time is booked throughout the semester, and enforced, to allow students to study their journals, produce written work and focus on the business of study, using the materials gathered and the tools they have been given in class. I imagine this would be of general use beyond this course.
4) This has nothing to do with the syllabus, but is always something that interests and concerns me. We've typically had Catholic students on EuroSem, or students with Catholic relatives. We're also typically well stocked with students who are full of ready opinions (most of them grossly misinformed) about Catholics and Catholicism. The language of "Christan" vs. "Catholic" has to be identified and rooted out immediately. The sacramental undertones of relics, saints and icons has to be connected to major themes of incarnation, crucifixion, suffering. redemption and resurrection. This is very fun work to do--but it helps a lot to have one's ears open and be aware that in the area of art and faith, there are lots of things one has to "get out in front of" in order for learning (rather than deepening of prejudices) to happen.
I feel personally as guilty as a puppy here. As a die-hard Protestant, although one who grew up with a Catholic mother, I am given to such false oppositions myself. I am taking this on board, as we speak, in Prague devising how this can best be done at the St Vitus' Cathedral, where I have been known to take a Protestant attitude to the 14th century saints' chapels. I will keep some of the controversy, but make discussion of such issues much more balanced and historically rooted.
This is an ambitious syllabus. But Gabriel, in my opinion, has very good teaching instincts. He'll be able to adapt it along the way as needed.
my $.02
ldb
I'm so grateful for the sentiment and expertise, Lisa.