{"id":2429,"date":"2014-11-03T18:53:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T18:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=2429"},"modified":"2014-11-03T18:53:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T18:53:03","slug":"a-critical-eye-on-the-founding-fathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2014\/11\/03\/a-critical-eye-on-the-founding-fathers\/","title":{"rendered":"A Critical Eye on the Founding Fathers"},"content":{"rendered":"

I sat in on Scott Himsel\u2019s Founding Brothers and Revolutionary Characters freshman tutorial recently, and plopped down in the middle of a lively debate. To observe was almost enjoyable as taking part.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a sucker for the Founding Fathers and became intrigued with this class over the summer when Cameron McDougal \u201912 said it was the most influential class he took at Wabash. After a few run-ins with Himsel and discussions about the class, he invited me to attend.<\/p>\n

In this class, students are asked to discuss and debate a multitude of topics, first through the words of the Founding Fathers, and then by connecting those words to current events. To paraphrase Himsel, \u201cthe historical point and the modern parallel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Grant<\/a>
Grant Wolf ’18<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Himsel often asks students to argue in favor of perspectives they disagree with. It teaches them, Himsel says, \u201cto walk around the entirety of the problem” McDougal took the class thinking he could rely on the words of Thomas Jefferson. More often than not, Himsel had him arguing from the position of Alexander Hamilton.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed watching these guys think, reason, and react. At times they\u2019d jot down notes or point a finger\u2014that telltale response that informs the world, “I have a thought worth sharing.\u201d<\/p>\n

You could tell these guys were enjoying the process, at least as much as the thumb-worn, dog-eared, underlined and highlighted copies of \u201cSomething That Will Surprise the World\u201d could attest.<\/p>\n

Himsel poked and prodded his students through the discussion with his own questions: “Are you sure?\u201d “Could you take that a step further?\u201d He went so far as to pull out a dollar bill to make a point. He wasn’t stifling or correcting, but giving these gentlemen the freedom to walk around this problem.<\/p>\n

Watching people think; to see the wheels turning \u2013 to see them reach for a book, thumb through a section, and look for just the right passage in response \u2013 is fun. Himsel brings the class to conclusion by relating the day\u2019s questions to current court cases. Words from another century easily can be lost in translation, but these words still carry weight, even when borrowed by sitting Supreme Court justices.<\/p>\n

After class, several students came forward and asked nuanced questions\u2014they were not only engaged, but were developing a critical eye.<\/p>\n

As this mid-term election season comes to a conclusion tomorrow, we\u2019ve seen plenty of politicians cloak themselves in the language of the Founding Fathers. It\u2019s reassuring to see this group of students grasping the importance of perspective in the ability to discern persuasion from political speak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I sat in on Scott Himsel\u2019s Founding Brothers and Revolutionary Characters freshman tutorial recently, and plopped down in the middle of a lively debate. To observe was almost enjoyable as taking part. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/11\/blog_0373-692x1024.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2431,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429\/revisions\/2431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}