Well folks. It all begins in two days…Monday at 8:45am. I’ve spent most of the past couple of weeks sitting in my office (That’s right. I have an office. I’m official.) reading books about ethics and trying to figure out how to teach such a subject. But I think I’ve got it. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be pretty easy given my foolproof, step-by-step method:
1. Tell the students that they have to give “presentations” on ethical issues. This basically makes them do all the work of preparing for the class.
2. Sit in the back with a notepad and occasionally jot something down (doesn’t actually have to mean anything because you never allow the student to see what it says…could just say “I’m bored. Bored, bored, bored.”).
3. Scowl a lot as they are speaking.
4. Come up with one or two questions per person that are solely for the purpose of establishing my intellectual superiority over the students. Good questions cite a supreme court case, refer to obscure historical events on specific dates, or talk about a country that may or may not actually exist.
5. Ta-da! Sit back and enjoy yourself all semester long.
But seriously though, I’m pretty excited. It took me a while, as I was starting from scratch, but I think that I’ve finally got a plan for the class that will hopefully work pretty well. I’ve been able to construct it so that at the beginning we will be looking at what the Bible has to say about ethics, trying to get a broad theological perspective, and then using that as a basis for thinking about some ethical issues, including some that are of particular relevance today (i.e. health care, war, food, immigration, etc.). And yes, I actually am having them doing presentations…but I’ll try not to use that as an excuse to slack off.