End of the Semester Debriefing
Finals started today, so I thought I would take this chance to look back over the semester and critique it. I am typing this in the middle of one of the exams, so you will have to pardon me if I look up every now and then to make sure the students are not cheating.
Overall, I am not thrilled with the way the semester went. I taught four sections of an intro to Bible class. This is the second time I have taught the Bible in one semester, and I found it even more frustrating this time. The frustration was brought on primarily by factors over which I have no control.
The first of these is the relative ignorance of the students concerning the Bible. When I was in college twenty years ago [Warning - nostalgic rant ahead that may or may not bear any resemblance to the way things actually were] most students at least had a basic understanding of the Bible. We didn’t know it from a scholarly perspective, but we had a general idea who Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul were. And while we were not familiar with Leviticus or Obadiah, we at least knew a number of the stories in Genesis, Samuel, and the Gospels. Granted, I went to a Baptist college, so that may have skewed the data a bit.
For the most part, this does not seem to be the case today. I feel like I am starting further back in the teaching process. It is like a English or Math professor having to do remedial courses. And it means that by the end of the semester we have not moved as far along as I would have liked. I don’t expect students to come in knowing the critical theories, but even a little more familiarity content would help them greatly.1 While teaching students who know Bible relatively well but have a problematic view of it presents its own challenges, I would much rather tackle that problem than having to feed students basic content.
(On the exam they are currently taking, they have to locate ten cities on a map of the Mediterranean region stretching from the Middle East to Italy. A student just came up to me and asked which way was “up” on the map. [Sigh])
The second factor is the fact that I have to teach the Bible in one semester. I have taught the Bible in a year several times before, and it is a much more reasonable time frame.2 I know that professors always think students should have to take more classes in their department, but when you teach at a denominationally affiliated college, you would think that two semesters of Bible would be a no-brainer. Instead, I have to rush to get through.
Which brings me to the third factor. Cramming the Bible into one semester means that all of the students’ reading time has to be taken up by the Bible. If I want the students to read anything close to what I consider the minimum amount of biblical text, I have to forego a secondary text like an introduction. I walk through the SBL book fair and see all the introductions to the Bible that are out there, but I never get to use them. Not once in my teaching career have I ever been able to assign both the Bible and a textbook in undergraduate.3 Every department in which I have worked has either forbidden the use of a textbook or recommended heavily against it.
Without a textbook, I am forced to spend a good portion of my class time teaching the scholarly theories. While these theories are important, they are supposed to be the framework within which we read the Bible. They are not the end but merely the means. But with so much of my time taken up by this material, I find I have little time to actually dig in and read the Bible with my students.
This fact jumped out at my starkly when I was preparing the exam that the students are now taking. In looking over my lecture notes to see what questions I could ask them, the majority of what I had taught was background such as the development of the Synoptic Gospels and which letters were and were not written by Paul.
I wish I could assign both the Bible and a textbook with a reasonable expectation that the students would read both. That way, they would come to class with a decent understanding of the scholarly ideas, and I could spend my time in class focusing on the actual text of the Bible.
I don’t mind teaching introductory classes. In fact, I love them. It would just be nice if I were free to teach them the way I think they should be taught.
- I know this is a common complaint among religion professors, but that does not change the fact that it is a valid complaint. [back]
- The administration always requires a semester of OT and a semester of NT when they have two semesters of Bible. Why I can’t devote three-fourths of the time to OT and a quarter of the time to the NT I don’t know. After all, that is how God divided up the material. [back]
- I was able to assign one when I taught at the seminary level. [back]
On April 14th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I feel you’re pain. I’ve thought a lot about these issues and it is such a dilemma of the ratio of primary vs. secondary readings. I still haven’t come to a satisfactory conclusion…
On April 14th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
[…] Kevin Wilson posted some reflections today upon his year of teaching Bible survey courses. In this post he discusses his dissatisfaction concerning the ratio of primary and secondary readings. This is a topic that I have thought about quite a bit as well and I don’t have good resolution yet. […]
On April 15th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Speaking from the perspective of a student (many moons ago), I have some input. When I went to Bible College I had a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible and, like you, I could find my way around the Bible and its characters and major events. My dismay came when we spent more time in secondary sources instead of in the Bible.
This dilemia may never be answered because the balance necessary can not be achieved in the limited timeframes imposed on the teacher by administration. We are spending less time in the Bible in our Bible colleges than ever.
On April 15th, 2008 at 7:54 am
My students at a Baptist university run the gamut from an impressive command of biblical content to barely being able to find Genesis. My frustration is in making the course helpful and interesting for the first group without completely demoralizing the second. At least I’m allowed to assign secondary reading, although I generally opt to use entries from a Bible dictionary rather than a formal textbook.
On April 15th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Kevin,
I feel your pain, as another reader has already commented. I went to a Bible college for my undergrad, and we were required three OT courses and four NT courses. This is obviously quite a different scenario than what you are dealing with.
In working with teenagers at my church, I have been amazed at the lack of knowledge they have about the Bible. As you have said, they don’t even know basic stories such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, et al. It is really amazing to me, and I’m not sure how one could teach the Bible in a single semester and help students to grasp anything.
Wow…that sounded really demoralizing.
On April 16th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Dear Kevin,
I’m sure that every student likes you in your classes, and they would like to appreciate your teaching.
This is my first teaching, and I couldn’t accomplish all without your help.
On April 16th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
A one-semester survey course covering the entire Bible is absurd. What are they thinking?