The fact that you ask us what a new direction should be for the class implies that you don’t think our class is in the best direction it could be going in. So maybe it’s not, but maybe it is. In grade school, we had a fairly boring class, but there was one thing the teacher did that kept it interesting. The representative that I talked to today from Marquette University also had been exposed to this kind of method by one of his professors, as he told me.
What my grade school teacher did was announce before the class that a particular student had been caught cheating on a test and we had a choice: we could all take a zero as a class, or she could take the zero alone. We voted, and after the class ended the teacher explained that it was in fact a lie, and that she was not being punished for cheating. It was simply an experiment to see what we would do.
The Marquette professor’s way of doing it was slightly different. He taught a religion course, but at some point told his students that he came to the conclusion that God did not exist. For the next three weeks, he held a discussion, and completely turned down and beat any arguments that God existed. During the fourth week, he revealed it was untrue that he believed that, and that it was done simply to see the reaction.
A direction like that would be perfect, keeping everyone alert, and playing devil’s advocate a little more seriously.
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