Guest Hotel & Commentary
The class in Human Rights noticed that a good portion of the book we are reading and using quoted one Dr. Donnelly. Since he is one of the experts in the field, and locally available, and was one of my professors, we offered an invitation to come and visit the class. I also think that many of the students just wanted to see a real person behind the author's name and citations that they read.
Surprisingly, my students were much quieter than I had expected. They did a reasonably good job questioning and commenting, and since most of the conversation was at a very high level, I was impressed by how much the students had learned since the beginning of the year, just by being able to understand and carry on a complex conversation.
The first question concerned where Dr. Donnelly fell on the universalism vs. relativism debate. [Do human rights apply to everyone, or do they differ by culture and history?] Since he is currently working on a paper on the topic, forty-five minutes later, he had answered the questions. Welcome to college.
Donnelly, however, also has a talent for putting complex ideas into perspective. His examples and discussion hit home with many students. A later question had to do with the "torture" question raging in the news. As a teacher, Donnelly pushes students to think through problems and ideas, rather than just reaching for answers. Surprisingly, a recent poll indicated that about 61% of the American public think that torture is justified in at least some circumstances. At the same time, a UN panel just released a condemnation of viewing torture as acceptable under any circumstances. My students, I think, aren't quite sure which way to go, but understand the issue, at least.
The students in the class appeared to enjoy the discussion and meeting an "author." Dr. Donnelly, can always inspire deep and organized thinking. As Dr. Donnelly leaves at the end of the day, we suddenly go into a lockdown. Gunshots ring out in the apartments behind the school. Too close for comfort, but the violence and conflict are in our society surrounding us. The school just got in the way. Within 30 minutes, things return to normal. But nearby, one person is dead. Like residents in Northern Ireland who learned to live with the worst of violence, I'm very afraid that we too are normalizing a level of violence that should be a scandal. Somehow, it just isn't shocking enough.
Surprisingly, my students were much quieter than I had expected. They did a reasonably good job questioning and commenting, and since most of the conversation was at a very high level, I was impressed by how much the students had learned since the beginning of the year, just by being able to understand and carry on a complex conversation.
The first question concerned where Dr. Donnelly fell on the universalism vs. relativism debate. [Do human rights apply to everyone, or do they differ by culture and history?] Since he is currently working on a paper on the topic, forty-five minutes later, he had answered the questions. Welcome to college.
Donnelly, however, also has a talent for putting complex ideas into perspective. His examples and discussion hit home with many students. A later question had to do with the "torture" question raging in the news. As a teacher, Donnelly pushes students to think through problems and ideas, rather than just reaching for answers. Surprisingly, a recent poll indicated that about 61% of the American public think that torture is justified in at least some circumstances. At the same time, a UN panel just released a condemnation of viewing torture as acceptable under any circumstances. My students, I think, aren't quite sure which way to go, but understand the issue, at least.
The students in the class appeared to enjoy the discussion and meeting an "author." Dr. Donnelly, can always inspire deep and organized thinking. As Dr. Donnelly leaves at the end of the day, we suddenly go into a lockdown. Gunshots ring out in the apartments behind the school. Too close for comfort, but the violence and conflict are in our society surrounding us. The school just got in the way. Within 30 minutes, things return to normal. But nearby, one person is dead. Like residents in Northern Ireland who learned to live with the worst of violence, I'm very afraid that we too are normalizing a level of violence that should be a scandal. Somehow, it just isn't shocking enough.
posted by curtis @ 6:26 PM
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