The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World: Teaching Thursday (a day early): Teaching the Election

While many of my colleagues and students spent last night watching election returns, I spent it in the classroom. I teach Western Civilization I on Tuesday nights. It meets once a week for two-and-a-half hours. About 40% of my students showed up for class, but they were a boisterous and excited group. We took breaks every half hour to watch the election results come in and the students provided all sorts of punditry -- sometimes on a county-by-county level -- especially as it became clear that North Dakota was going to fall to John McCain. It was a great class.

I also had to teach. Medieval history waits for no man (or woman). It just so happened, however, that I was teaching on the reform movement of the 11th and 12th centuries. I explained how the monastery at Cluny elected its own abbots and this helped keep the monastery (with its particular observance) free from external influence and autonomous. This practice ultimately manifest itself in the practice of the Papal Curia electing the Papacy which was introduced by reforming Popes like Leo IX and Nicholas II. The autonomy of the church, supported in part by the elected status of the Papacy became a significant feature in the emergence of the "imperial" Papacies of the 11th-13th centuries. Lecturing of Medieval history on such a significant election night seemed a bit odd and maybe even a bit out-of-touch, but I kept thinking about two things. First, considering the long history of the "West" will help us keep this moment in perspective. While history has the power to liberate the lost voices of the past, it can also swallow up even the greatest moment of triumph. Second, listening to my students talk about their home towns and counties and their views on the election challenged the idea that today's college students are apathetic and disengaged. My students had an idea of what was going on and definite hopes for the future.

In my afternoon class, The Historians Craft, we talked about the uneasy relationship between historians and the "public realm". I had the class read William E. Leuchtenburg's American Historical Association, Presidential Address entitled "The Historian and the Public Realm". Aside from the fact that only two or three students (of a class of 10) read it, we were nevertheless able to think about how historians should engage as professionals in political activism. The response from the class was unexpected. Despite the persistent rhetoric that academics should maintain a position above the fray, students almost universally felt that historians should take a more public role in decisions being made in the US. Knowing the past, my class argued, was vital to understanding the consequences of policy and the way forward as a society and state.

Exciting politics makes it easy to be an exciting teacher, but next week I'll again be left to my own devices.

And Teaching Thursday on a Wednesday! Well, tomorrow is an exciting anniversary for the Department of History, the University, and the State of North Dakota. Stay tuned.

For more Teaching Thursdays:

1 Comment

Did you see this article?

http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/11/10/nsse

I thought it might provide an interesting comparison on reading rates. What does it take, in your estimation, to increase the number of students who come to seminar having read the material beforehand?

Posted by: Sterling Fluharty | November 10, 2008 at 09:59 PM

The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

November 05, 2008

Teaching Thursday (a day early): Teaching the Election

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William Caraher

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