How I teach
Should be the same anywhere.
Find out how I teach on the public university campus (2 min vid + full text below).
Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).
Pictures: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat, Polly Riddell
FULL TEXT
I was asked in a conversation with a public university colleague, how I would summarize my teaching on campus. I had a two-word response: I try to teach with excellence and benevolence. I explained the words this way.
“Excellence” to me means that I hold myself to a high standard of both content and communication. I want to set before my students the best content ideas that will help them hone their skills as thinkers and writers. For example, if I am teaching about ethics, I set before them great thinkers such as Thomas Sowell, Bari Weiss, Glenn Loury, or Robert P. George to help them wrestle with what is right or wrong. And as a communicator, I spend hours ahead of class time to make sure the message of that session comes across in ways that students will understand.
The word “benevolence” to me means that while I will not lower my high standards, I will always lower myself to help students. Expectations are high because I am preparing young minds for a world where they will spend the rest of their lives reasoning and communicating. Learning how to think, how to communicate, will give a strong foundation for living. At the same time, so many of my students struggle with mental health issues. I spend countless hours commenting on their papers or counseling in private conversations about the struggles they are facing. The old adage is true, people don’t care what you know, until they know, you care. My chats with students are constantly woven with charity.
Excellence and benevolence are the two words that summarize my response to the question, “How do you do your work on the public university campus?” High standards and great care will always mark my teaching. I have passion for the subject and compassion for the student.
For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found and speaking the truth in love, wherever it’s necessary.