Saturday, May 30, 2015

Back to school

After most of a year away from the teaching enterprise (I've missed it!) I am excited that the coming year won't just take me back to my vocation but give me a chance to contribute to an exciting larger pedagogical project. MetroCITI, run by Teacher's College of Columbia University, convenes a year-long seminar annually which brings together liberal arts instructors from different kind of New York city colleges and universities to share experiences, insights, problems, strategies and best practices. And I've been accepted as one of their 2015-16 Fellows! We start team-building with four meetings in mid-July. It makes me happy to think I'm not just returning to The New School, renewed and refreshed though it doubtless is after a markless year, but to this project, too. As you know I care deeply about the ideals of liberal arts education, and have worried that it's being redefined out of existence as a vanity product only for rich schools and their students. Liberal education can't just be for the economic elite, for all of our sakes. But how to teach it, support it, defend it? MetroCITI faces these challenges head-on. I'm really grateful to have a chance to contribute - and learn.