phenomenal
\nGuest Poster<\/a>) Kyle started his first year at the University of Michigan
\nthis Fall. It was as full and kick-ass a semester as I knew it would be, and
\nthere are countless moments and experiences of which I\u2019m very proud and which
\nmake me even more excited for all that\u2019s next. But for a series on teaching
\nreflections, I have to highlight two very distinct but complementary and
\nequally impressive papers Kyle wrote for his tough but fascinating and
\nrewarding first-year history seminar on the study of deep time:<\/span><\/p>\nToward the
\nstart of the semester, Kyle\u2019s professor asked them to write a personal
\nobservation and analysis of some aspects of the (beautiful) Michigan campus,
\ntied to the class themes of continuity and change over deep time. He chose to
\nobserve the seasonal pattern of the changing Fall leaves, to connect it to the
\ncycles of campus construction, and to consider the relationships and contrasts between
\nthese natural and man-mind experiences of the landscape, setting, and time. And
\nhe did so in a style that was equal parts funny and wise, warm and thought-provoking,
\nvery much Kyle\u2019s but also something I hadn\u2019t quite read from him before. My
\nfavorite paper I read all semester, with absolutely no offense to any of my FSU
\nstudents!<\/span><\/p>\nThe course\u2019s
\nsecond assignment was a somewhat more typical analytical paper: working with
\nmultiple class texts to develop a thesis about and multi-layered analysis of a
\ncentral class question and theme. Kyle chose a complex and important
\nquestion\/theme about whether and how human progress is possible, and worked
\nclosely and convincingly with a series of dense and challenging texts
\n(including one featuring the perspective of the legendary Werner Herzog) to develop
\na thoughtful and nuanced thesis about different theories of progress as, themselves,
\nthe best reflection of both the limits and the possibilities of such change. If
\nKyle continues in his pre-Law path he\u2019s going to have lots of occasions to work
\nwith dense texts to consider big human questions, and this paper made me very excited
\nfor that continued arc\u2014and every part of Kyle\u2019s next steps at Michigan!<\/span><\/p>\nNext
\nseries starts Monday,<\/span><\/p>\nBen<\/span><\/p>\nPS. What
\ndo you think?<\/span><\/p>\nPPS. I drafted this post before Kyle wrote his final paper for the course, a truly stunning synthesis of many different ideas about deep time, both from class readings and (especially) from his own evolving perspective. I could go on & on about that culminating essay and his incredibly thoughtful and multilayered work in it, but I’ll simply conclude this post with his banger of a concluding sentence: “<\/span>Through a collective understanding of deep time, humanity can challenge notions of temporal insignificance and inevitable environmental destruction, pioneering a newfound epoch defined by interrelational mutualism between man and nature, not one categorized by geological antagonism.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This week marks the conclusion of another Fall semester, my 21st at Fitchburg State. Since we\u2019re all going through it at the moment, I thought I\u2019d share one significant challenge I faced in each class this semester, and a bit about how I tried to respond. Leading up to this special weekend post on my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[13299,3764,5254,2933],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-342731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-americanstudies","tag-december","tag-kyle","tag-michigan"],"yoast_head":"\n
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