Word: sectionalism
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...Hall 203. The door on the elevator traversing the shaft between the basement and second floor of Memorial Hall does its best Star Wars trash-compactor impression every time you push “2.” The door closes so slowly that most students save their Justice section reading for the ride up.Eight: Make Gov office hours equal-opportunity. Gov-jocks are somewhat of a thing of the past now that the Government department has put its grade-inflationary past behind it. But the department’s brand new buildings, called CGIS Knafel and CGIS South, have...
...purpose of a section varies across disciplines. But in many courses in the humanities and social sciences, it should not be for the TF to summarize readings and provide context. Sections should be sites in which students learn to argue cogently about the arguments and perspectives of the readings. If they do not learn such skills here, where will they learn them? A good section is one in which students are listening to and arguing with each other. Such interchange is not as useless as O’Brien implies. To achieve it requires a good TF and students willing...
...easy to blame bad sections on students, and there’s certainly some justice in doing so: realistically, most students do not prepare all of the material for section each week. (In fact, I’d argue that, in most classes, at least half of the students have stopped doing the bulk of the reading by mid-semester.) How can we make use of an hour if we accept that most students are not ideally prepared to discuss the course material in depth...
...readings—and this may reek of anti-intellectualism and cynicism—an ambitious curriculum means nothing if it is not also practical. Apart from assigning less reading for courses, TF’s might send focus questions to students before section, so students who are strapped for time (a completely realistic expectation) can focus their reading on a few key issues...
...footnote to this story is that, if students are less than involved in their sections, they are decidedly apathetic about the ongoing Harvard College Curricular Review. Hopefully the College administration will take the steps necessary to resuscitate the discussion section, so that our new curriculum isn’t lost on students—and their pristine, 400-page coursepacks...