In the Garden of Eden, God could have named the animals, but instead He asked Adam to name them. Reflecting on this remarkable fact, Alexander Schmemann writes, “The unique position of man is that he is to bless God for the food and life he receives from him. He alone is to respond to God’s blessing with his blessing…to thank him, to see the world as God sees it and - in this act of gratitude and adoration - to know, name, and possess the world” (For the Life of the World). Here and elsewhere, Schmemann describes the human capacity for language as being inextricably bound up with the human capacity for worship.
Following Schmemann, I understand education as the process of cultivating the human longing to bless God through the knowing and naming of God’s works. On my view, education is in part the handing down of human language (broadly construed), i.e., the activity of studying and putting words around God’s creation. But more importantly, education is the process of teaching the next generation to use language in a way that accords with its ultimate purpose, namely the worship of God for all things and in all things. Ever since the snake entered the garden, language has been used to distort reality as well as manifest it. It is our task as educators to lead our students out of a distorted use of language and into one that reveals and blesses God the Word. Our task is to not only name the world, but more importantly to do so in a way that helps others love God and worship Him.
Practicums
What I value most about teaching philosophy is that I get to inform my students’ lives. One way I do this is by assigning practicums. For example, to enrich our study of ethics, my students and I experimented with practices of character formation found in the virtue ethics tradition. Afterwards, we used tools from our course readings to reflect on our experiences and evaluate the extent to which our experiences fit different theories of virtue ethics. Exercises like these help my students use their lives to examine the philosophy they are studying, and in turn use the philosophy they are studying to lead more examined lives.
From teaching evaluations:
“The practicums and reflections were the best part of the course because they helped transition what was learned in class from nebulous ethical concepts to real-world, tangible concepts that I could investigate and experience in my own life.”
“Through this course, I was able to get a deeper understanding of ethics as well as reflect on who I am as a person. It allowed me to understand my roles in life and allow me to figure out who I am.”
Syllabi
Here are some syllabi I've designed. Some are for courses I've already taught or am teaching. Others are for courses I would like to teach in the future.
Virtues and Vices (Spring 2025)
Ethics as a Way of Life (Spring 2023)
An Introduction to Philosophy via C.S. Lewis
Technology Ethics (Fall 2024)