Interview with Great Questions prof, Kerry Pope
Continuing our coverage of the Great Questions Seminars, today we’re bringing you our second program faculty interview. Kerri Pope is an Assistant Professor of Humanities, and was eager to share her experience as an instructor in GQ with us. Enjoy!
Tell us about your work as a GQ Instructor.
One of the most exciting things I’m working on this semester is a “Making Connections” project for my GQ students: they receive list of cultural and historical things that relate to what we are reading, and they choose an item to study and bring their findings to class for discussion. It’s a wonderful alternative to the textbook-and-lecture style of a traditional humanities course. The real magic of GQ is that it turns students into shepherds of their own learning. I’m not there to beat information into their heads for them to regurgitate back to me, I’m just the guide as they take ownership of their learning.W
What works are you examining in your section? How do they speak to your students’ experiences?
We started with The Odyssey, then went into the Making Connections project, then back to The Odyssey and how it relates to our other texts. Our next reading is Plato’s Meno – we’re asking ourselves, what is knowledge, what is real learning, and how do you explain it to other people? We’re getting students used to the idea that learning is not a cut and dry process, it’s a continual lifelong journey. Meno ties into Euclid, after which we’ll do another Making Connections, then Machiavelli’s The Prince, then Making Connections again. We’ll examine how all these different works from different sections of time connect with different patterns. When students see those connections, they see their value. I am 100% sold on the fact that you can build meaning and context in the studies of the humanities with pointed readings and exercises without going in chronological order. It opens the eyes of the students, but as a professor, it’s also opened my eyes that you don’t need a textbook to teach a survey course.
Have you had any students who had never finished an entire book before enrolling in GQ?
The Odyssey is a thick book, and it’s scary. So we approach it in chunks – “let’s start it off slow, and then let’s talk about it.” We also talk about the things in our lives that prevent it us from doing it, and work around it – if you didn’t read it, what are your reasons? – using the psychology of procrastination. Talking students through this gives them perspective and transferable skills that they will use throughout their college career and beyond. We don’t just talk about the book, but how to fit in reading a book into today’s modern life. We talk about strategies to get this done in the modern world.
I’m teaching one section of GQ at HLC, and for some of my students, it’s their first experience reading a whole text like The Odyssey. The youngest student in my section is 16, the oldest is 64, and all are coming from a wide range of experience. They have a unique opportunity to talk about their personal experience related to the questions discussed in class. (For example: when we discussed The Odyssey, we talked about how Odysseus must disguise himself. What are times we’ve felt we had to disguise ourselves?)
What advice would you give to students who are considering enrolling?
It is part of my position to go to the Riverbat Bashes and job fairs at each campus and table for GQ. I talk to students about their favorite part of a class, and it’s usually the things that give them more freedom. I ask them, “What if you could belong to a book club, but get college credit for it Instead of memorizing a bunch of names and dates, what if you could find an item that you think is cool and bring it to class and discuss?” I may be the instructor, but I really don’t teach this class – I’m a part of it. We’re a collaborative leaning group, and at the end of the semester we’re all going to learn something.
What do you find the most rewarding about your work in this project?
I value my mentor relationship with students; I meet with them twice a semester, and they tell me how they’re doing in the class and how they’re doing in their lives. I give them a touchstone that they don’t have to wait in line to get. It’s a personal relationship where they see you not as an obstacle that they have to overcome, but an ally on their educational journey. And that’s not easy to do with 25 students, but it’s impossible in a class of 36 students. Students are not given a space to talk about the challenges in their life, and I love that GQ makes that a priority. It’s also changed my entire perspective on teaching; I used to think I was bad at math, but when I went through Euclid to prepare for the program, I got it. I saw the world in a different light, and all I could think was “They did me wrong.” If we can give that lightbulb to students early enough in the careers, it might even keep them from making adverse life choices (like failing out of school!)
In your own words, why is it important to for students (or anyone else) to read a whole book?
Oh, so many reasons. For students who come to class nervous because they’ve never read a full book before, and then seeing them so excited and high-fiving each other because they finished The Odyssey, it’s a great feeling. And then the next book is only 200 pages, and many people on day one who didn’t think they could manage that can now say to themselves “I just finished The Odyssey!” and that accomplishment has changed their perception of who they are, what they’re capable of and what they can be. “I just finished The Odyssey” means something – they are a part of something they didn’t think they could be a part of. It gives students who didn’t think they were invited to this kind of thing the affirmation that they do have a seat at the table after all.