Summer Faith Course 2003 Course Calendar Revised July 4, 2003
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Got to Summer Faith Course Calendar Part II: Weeks Three Through Five

Junior Theology Faith

Schedule and Tentative Course Outline

St. Louis U. High Summer 2003
This is a work in progress and will change!

Tentative grading plan | Extra Credit



This class has to be taught differently than the usual classes I teach during the school year. The class meets 9 to 11:15 every morning for five weeks and has ten students. Last week I was at a JSEA Symposium in Denver Evaluation: A Key to Cura Personalis
First thing I did was to set up the room in a non-traditional manner. There is no podium or teacher's desk. Rather there are eleven desks set in a semi-circle and I sit in a regular desk with my students.
I have also tried to set up the rom in a very freindly manner: art work, books and resources, lots of space (I got rid of all exra desks) even a chess set. Students are invited to come into class early and leave late if they want.
Every day one student is asked to begin class with a prayer, reading or reflection. It shold be someting appropriate to aa theology course about faith. He has the opportunity to arrange the desks in whatever way he pleases.

First Week: Reason

MONDAY, June 23

CLASS I began class with a very brief reflection from Plato.
8:45 till 9 I was in the classroom early to meet, to greet and to talk to my students before class , which is something that I cannot usually do during the regular school year.
9 till 9:15 I began class with a hello and a welcome, offered some and offerd some of my goals for this class: that all students get As or A+s, that we do a lot of cooperative learning and I use many and different non-tradtiional methods of assessment, and that we learn a lot and enjoy ourselves.
9:15 till 10:45 I then gave them a practice faith quiz. The purpose of this included to introduce the idea of rubrics, to illustrate some key issues about epistemology, to illustrate the difference between fact, opinion and belief, to let the student find out his idea of faith, and to let them evalutate each other, and to give them the chance to work in groups of two. The grades are recouded in the grade book but do not count.
9:15 till 9:30 Students had fifteen minutes to take the quiz.
9:30 till 9:45 Then students were put into groups of two based on birthdays and they corrected each other's tests. They had to discuss and agree upon the "right answers." Students had were given red pens to use to grade. They also had to evaluate and grade the short essay, basically "Was Holden Caulfield a Young Man of Faith?" They had read Catcher in the Rye during their sophomore year. They had to put a grade on the top of the page.
9:45 till 9:55
10:05 till 10:40 We then corrected the quiz as a class. I let them tell me their answer, and if there was dispute I asked them to talk it out and decide what should be accepted. As we did this I asked them to consider important epistemological questions. On the essay I ask them to be aware of what they meant by faith. That evening I corrected each quiz with a green pen.
10:40 till 11:00 Students were assigned to read and mark pages 1-18 in the Readings Book. What they did not finish they need to complete for homework.
11:00 till 11:15 At the end of each class students are asked to journal. They had a directed journal with an objective component (what today struck you as especially true, important or thought-provoking; what did you hear today that you want to remember or think more about?) and a subjective part (Why do you think this stood out? Does this lead to any insight about your own ideas, thoughts and feelings?). These entries should be very helpful in preparation for doing the weekly reflection paper.

HOMEWORK Read and mark readings book pgs 1-18 : Theology and Philosophy & Three Kinds of Knowledge
Fill out personal questionairre and hand in tomorrow.

TUESDAY, June 24

CLASS Charles Ullmann will begin class with a reading from Waldon Pond by Henry David Thoreau.
9:00 till 9:30 Each student reads something from his journal. then we watched a 60 Minutes excerpt about Eric Clapton.
9:30 till 10:30 We broke up into two groups based on height. Students were given a task to discuss as a group but hand in their own paper about Plato's "allegory of the cave."
10:30 till 11:00 video excerpt about the death of Socrates from the PBS series "The Greeks. .
11:00 till 11:10 first part of journaling; finish subjective part at home.

HOMEWORK

WEDNESDAY, June 25

CLASS Trey Suntrup began class with Buddhist reading.
9:00 till 9:30 Review of key idea from prior classes; changes in assignments and grading.
9:30 till 10:15 The class is the Jury in a road rage case. They have an half an hour to decide an actual case.
10:15 till 10:30 Discussing the experience: how did you think, what values and underlying beliefs did your acitons demonstrate? How easy was it? Why the differences? (I should have asked about some of the feelings they had during the experience).
10:30 till 11:00 Thinking errors: five from the readings, Richard Feynman, John Harmon, my own.
11:00 till 11:15 Objective part of journaling.

HOMEWORK Read and mark readings 25-35

Each Wednesday of the course will be a day for cooperative work in web page building.
After class, the iBooks will be available for student use until at least noon. Students can use my digital camera and Justin Bushong's.


THURSDAY, June 26

CLASS Tom Junker began class with a brief reading about faith.
9:00 till 9:30 Review of some key ideas: Plato's allegory, Five Foundational Lessons and another story about Richard Feynman.
9:30 till 10:00 Small group working on three key parts of this week's readings: thinking errors, keys to critical thinking and the porcess of knowing.
10:00 till 10:30 Student presentations.
10:30 till 11 Lecture/demonstration about how the mind works.
11 till 11:15 Objective part of Journal. From the Matrix: Which pill would you take?

HOMEWORK Study for test tomorrow.

FRIDAY, June 27

CLASS Paul Florek will begin class with a quote from Aristotle.

Some men are sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

9:00 till 9:50 20 point test. If you know the review sheet you should do well.
10 to 10:15 Brief self-evaluation and course evaluation. Self: How do you feel about the test? How well do you think you did? If you thought you did well, what are some things you did that successfully prepared you for this test? If you did poorly on the test (or on a section of the test), try to figure out why. What do you need to do to learn better? Course: How is the course going so far? What do you find good (and I should keep doing)? What is not working (and I should conisder changing)?
10:15 till 11:15 video: A Crisis in Faith. This video/handout will review some key ideas of the first week and might help you reflect your own "cave."

HOMEWORK First reflection paper due Monday.

Second Week: The Human Condition

Monday, June 30

CLASS 9 to 9:15 Alex Sciuto will begin class with prayer of Mother Teresa. We will begin with a few questions: Were you more aware of thinking errors in yourself? Were you more aware of your unconscious? Before you hand in your journal, write one thing that you think you need to do to be a more reflective, a more deliberate person.
9:15 till 9:30 Write you ideas about the human condition. What are some aspects of this, true for all men everywhere at any time, and why?
9:30 till 10:45 Last week you got a glimpse of how theologians and philosophers work. You heard a few stories about a few men (Clapton, Feynman, Socrates) came to lead live more deliberate lives. Today you get to be learn about philosophy not be reading about it (knowledge from authority) to learning by trying to philosophy/theology (experiential knowledge).
You have till 10:45 am to answer these two questions as clearly and completely as you can What is the universal human condition--and why? These are true statements that apply to all persons of all time at any place.
First part:
� What is the human condition?
� What is the cause of our condition?
A necessary criteria for the validity of these statements: does this apply to all persons everywhere at any time?
Remember some of the things you learned last week in your assigned reading (anyone offer their view s on these questions), in your reactions and responses (the difference between just reacting and reflecting and philosophizing) and in your jury experience (is it worthwhile to talk to others and listen to others?)
You can work alone or with another or as a class but everyone does their own web site or paper. Please hand this in as a webpage linked on your homepage. On this page you must add at least one picture , or a poem, or a photo, or music, which you believe depicts the human condtion well. I�ll check your home page tomorrow morning.
11 till 11:15 Journaling

HOMEWORK


Tuesday, July 1

CLASS
9 to 9:15 Questions for discusssion � "How did it feel to DO philosophy?" � What was the symbol of the human condition and why did you choose it? � Is the human condition similar or dissimilar for all human beings?
9:15 till 9:45 Paul Florek guided the class to fill out a chart about the human conditon � What can we know for certain? � What can we say with a high degree of certainty? � What do we believe?
9:45 till 10:00 Studuents read and marked pgs 52-55 on the human condition and put key ideas on the board.
A suggestion for those who enjoy philosophical thinking: Create a web stie with your own Pensees. The famous philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal wanted to write a book on the human condition and how it pointed to the truth of the Christian worldview. Although he died early, his friends compiled his writings into a book called Pensees (meaning �thoughts�). What are your own most significant underlying belifes about man, about life about death?
10:00 till 10:45 Review and discussion of what the Readings say about the Human Condition.
10:45 till 11 Read and mark pgs 56-59 on "The Causes of the Human Condition."
We will end both classes with 15 minutes of journaling.

HOMEWORK Read and mark pgs 44-51 "The Problem of Evil."

Wednesday, Junly 2

CLASS Justin Bushong began class with a quote from Confucius. Confucius much in Chinese

Only the wisest and the stupidest ofmen never change.

9 till 9:15 Discuss: How hard was it to DO philosophy?
9:30 till 10:45 Video: When Bad Things Happen to Good People Rabbi Harold Kushner. Students have worksheet to complete as they watch the video.
10:45 till 11:00 Journaling: What really struck you as worthwhile and valuable and true from the video? What about "the human condition" and "the problem of evil" did you get?
11 till 11:15 Invitation to share what they wrote.

HOMEWORK Finish your Readings summary on the human condition on your web site. Give what Pascal, Marcus Aurelius, Buddha, Fromm and Plato say about the human condition. Add causes if you can. Also add the Christian idea of original sin and its effects. This will be a good review for the test!

Thursday July 3

CLASS David Koehneman began class with a quote frrom Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I still believe that standing up for truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. Thisis the real and and purpose of life. The end of life isnot to be happy. The of life isnot to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.


9 till 9:15 quesitons, study, discussion.
9:15 till 10:00 20 point weekly test. Included is a 5 point clas question.
10:00 till 10:30 Outliine in class: Readings book: "The Mystery of Death" (pgs 60-64)and "Four Theories of the Afterlife." (pgs. 65-68) and "Christian eschatology" (68-86).
10:45 till 11 Journal entry. You've heard metaphors about life from Plato, Aristotle, Pascal. Outside give another mataphor that you have found valuable: from art, music, anywhere.
11 till 11:15 Sharing the metaphors: Isaac Lord of the Rings, Pat Green Psychology, Alex running a marathon, Paul music, Tom J. a balanced eco-ssytem, Charles story of a hawk ...as a metaphor for life,

HOMEWORK Reflection essay due Monday. Also remember that your web site on the human condition should be done by Saturday.

Friday, July 4

Celebrate the Fourth of July.

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