Monthly Archives: February 2015

Teaching can always be improved! The question is: how can we use class observation in the improvement? I also think that observing and being observed are ways to get useful information and there should be a regular custom to do this in every college and university.

This blog by Shaun Allison is an excellent example of ways to do it and not to do it. Hope you enjoy (and learn) reading it. I did!

Life without lesson observation grades.

Is this a despairing situation? Are we facing a hopeless future for human kind?

When we see all the destruction caused to our environment and see the apathy of powerful interests it is easy to despair and feel dishearten for the situation. But there is hope!

There is hope for many reasons, and for no reason at all. I am reading Roger Gottlieb’s book “A Spirituality of Resistance”

Gottlieb’s profound ethical  view guides us through a labyrinth of questions and help us to get our own answers. This is why I am optimistic about the future: Every time we encounter challenges we find ways to overcome them and to come out of them stronger and better. The hard part is always to justify the victimization of innocents in the process. How can we justify the victimization of Jews during the Holocaust to say that now we know better thus making this a better world? There is no justification in my mind, as there is no justification of disappearing forests, endangered species, and natural wonders for humans to learn a lesson.

This is the message that I am bringing to our class “Earthkeeping” the HUM 212 course taught at Warner Pacific College every spring. Being this one of the elective courses required for the humanities sequence we have students from all walks of life in the pursue of different majors. This gives us the opportunity to address ethical behavior applied to many disciplines.

The questions I always ask then are: What am I supposed to do? How should I address the issue without despair? Is there a small action that I can do together with others in my community that will have a noticeable impact?