The college experience is different for everyone, but there are three things every student can count on in every class. There’s the curriculum, there’s the classroom and there’s the instructor. One class offered at IU Southeast this semester has these three things, but with a difference.
This is an honors literature class focusing on heroes in literature. The class meets off campus at the Remnant Trust in downtown Jeffersonville. The instructor is IU Southeast chancellor, Sandra Patterson-Randles.
“For me it’s a lot of work on top of a full time job, but as long as I’ve been an administrator I always taught, at some point,” Patterson-Randles said.
The students in this class are required to read one book a week, and only primary texts are allowed – that is, the work of the original author, not a literary or scholarly interpretation or opinion. And then they must be ready to discuss the book in great detail at the once weekly class meeting.
“They have to really read the literature, they have to mark passages, they have to cite pages as a basis of their argument. This is what any good scholar does with primary literature. It’s the sort of analysis that one would expect someone to do at upper levels of education. I think that’s the way you develop your own mental abilities,” Patterson-Randles said.
Heather Brown, elementary education sophomore, said, “We discuss the books on a deeper level than you normally would. It’s nice to look at deeper ideas that apply to the book, as well as things in your life.”
Angela Salas, director of the honors program, said the topics change for the class each semester and the only rule is that the curriculum has to meet the learning objectives of the honors program. Paterson-Randles designed this class and patterned it after the St. John’s Great Books Seminar program at St. John’s College.
“The whole idea behind a St John’s great books seminar is that you read a piece of literature in depth, and then in seminar the professor asks an opening question and then it’s open discussion, [in this case] always tied to the hero,” Patterson-Randles said. “By the end of two and a half hours we get a strong sense of the major issues in the piece of literature.”
The class started out reading The Odyssey, and by the end of the semester will move into the 20th century reading Kamala Markandaya’s, Nectar in a Sieve. They will also watch and discuss three films.
From a list of about 75 hero movies, they’ve chosen “Braveheart,” “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” and for the last two classes each student will individually watch, critique and present on a third film of his or her choosing.
“The atmosphere is wonderful, a very scholarly in-depth atmosphere. I think the students have wonderful insights into the literature. They debate one another; it’s polite, collegial conversation, which I think is wonderful. We need models of that in our society,” Patterson-Randles said.
The location adds to the atmosphere of the class.
“It’s pretty neat to have class at the Remnant Trust,” Brown said. “There’s an aura there, with those really old texts. I think it’s a neat idea and it adds to the class experience.”
The Remnant Trust is located at 129 East Court Avenue, in Jeffersonville, in the former Carnegie Library. It houses old and ancient manuscripts from around the world. The location reflects the curriculum of the class.
“We began our first session looking at a text from 1715,” Patterson-Randles said, “a translation of Homer’s Iliad done by the poet Alexander Pope. We had it in our hands and passed it around the group.”
“Since we’re using only primary texts in this class, I wanted to have the class in a place where they’re surrounded by original texts of great age. The location is a part of the course in terms of the atmosphere that it sets,” Patterson-Randles said.
“I’ve heard the students are delighted to see and touch a very old manuscript. It’s a real highlight,” Salas said.
Paterson-Randles, a long-time supporter of honors programs, has been involved with several in her student and professional career.
“I think honors programs are wonderful, particularly because they’re very often
Inter-disciplinary in nature,” she said.
“It’s rare to have the chief officer of an institution teaching a course. It’s very gracious of the chancellor to do this,” Salas said. “There’s an element of novelty for the students.”
“I like the chancellor as a teacher,” Brown said. “She really helps us get down into the deeper meanings of the text.”
“I’ve taught at the college level for 30 years, all sorts of disciplines, from math and science to art and literature,” Patterson-Randles said. “I’m enjoying it tremendously because I love teaching. I think there’s nothing better in the world than to see a student learn and grow and then go out and be a success. This is why one would pick a career in education.”
The curriculum, the location and the instructor – the elements are the same but in this case, there’s a difference.
By DARIENNE ARCURI
Staff Writer
darcuri@ius.edu
