University of Louisville
A Class Act:
Course Work is the
Centerpiece of Honors
By Jennifer Wrubel, Psychology and Biology
Editors note: The Honors Program offers 35 to 40 Honors courses each semester in topics ranging from mathematics to the arts, providing students a broad class selection to fulfill the required 34 credits of general education. These classes are taught by some of U of L's best teachers and are limited to a maximum of 25 students. In this feature, we report on a single session of several Honors classes to give a bit of insight to Honors coursework.
Jazz Man and Early Music
Polyphony is the day's topic in Dr. Jack Ashworth's University Honors "History of Western Music" class. Guest jazz musician Harry Pickens is presenting his unique insights. Pickens, who performed for years with Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson and many other jazz artists, is a composer, musician, entertainer and educator; he also leads national corporate leadership workshops. A proponent of action learning styles, Pickens often joins Ashworth's class with the lively counterpoint of a jazz man.
Not on the agenda today is a dictionary definition of polyphony: "the simultaneous combinations of two or more independent melodic parts, especially when in close harmonic relationship; counterpoint." Rather, the class and teachers explore the many-voiced nature of polyphony.
A half dozen song and talking exercises into class, Melanie Drake of Muhlenburg County describes the single-voice exercise as "very bland in unison." On the other hand, Sean Donaldson of Louisville identifies it as having "solidity." Amanda Evridge of Westport is asked to repeat, one beat behind, James Paten of Louisville as he describes the things he will do next Monday. Groups of three engage in the same exercise. Then Pickens and Ashworth do an improvisational dialog using the themes of "Halloween" and "scary" to develop a language-based, improvisational, spoken "polyphony." (Both early music, Ashworth's field, and jazz have large elements of improvisation.) The result was an engaging patter weaving phrases about Halloween as they moved around and past each other, occasionally highlighted by the repeated word "scary." The whole exercise provided an effective method of demonstrating the elements of polyphony in the familiar genre of the spoken word.
According to Ashworth, his Honors Western Music class differs from his non-Honors class largely in the risk taking his students undertake. Because students are eager to experiment with non-traditional modes of learning such as Pickens' exuberant polyphony exercises, even abstract concepts come alive in unexpected ways.
A member of the University Honors teaching staff, Dr. Ashworth directs the School of Music's popular Early Music Ensemble and teaches music history as well. A graduate of Stanford's performance practice early music program, Ashworth is an in-demand national and international workshop director. In 1995 he was named U of L's Undergraduate Teacher of the Year, and in 1999 he was awarded the national Early Music America Collegium Director Outstanding Achievement Award.
"Advanced Composition for Freshmen"
With a seminar named "Sensational Fictions: Scandal and The 19th Century Novel," it is tempting to focus on the lively offerings of the Honors seminars. However, if lively is the drawing card for selecting a class, Jacqueline Brown's "Advanced Composition for Freshman" offers plenty of competition. The work of the day is the student-selected reading, James Joyce's The Dubliners, providing ample opportunity for student discussion that ranges from "nothing happened" and "I didn't like him, he's overrated" to "all of a sudden the end just hits you" and "Joyce makes me think about things I don't want to think about. I think it's cool!"
Brown peppers her teaching with "keep going" as the 18 members of the class tentatively step out into new territory. Her welcoming prompt opens the floor to vigorous discussion that explores every dimension of the written work and the author's life.
Nearly all first-year students take freshman composition, and thus unlike other classes in the University Honors course listing, there are several sections. In the Spring of 2002 three sections of "Advanced Composition for Freshmen" meet and in the fall of 2002 there will be nine.
"Joyce makes me think
about things I don't want
to think about. I think it's cool!"
______________________________________________
Professors like teaching Honors classes, and the schedule tends to feature many of the highly respected scholars in the English department. For example, the former chair of the English department and Renaissance specialist Dr. Robert Miller teaches a section of Honors comp that is finishing up a unit of essays on science. Following spring break, the class will examine the nature of myth and religion. But for this day, the discussion begins with an essay by Edward O. Wilson, noted ant expert and the Harvard entomologist who introduced the idea of sociobiology.
The essay examines the renewal of life on the island of Krakatau in the aftermath of the 1883 cataclysmic volcanic eruption. Life makes its first appearance with a small spider seven months after the event. The student group scheduled to present today shows a degree of uncertainty, commenting that "he didn't use stuff you couldn't understand," "it was extremely descriptive" and "it never got boring." One student concludes that in such circumstances life reestablishes itself in a haphazard manner, that "if one [species] doesn't [establish itself], another will."
Along the way Miller casually dips into his impressive off-the-cuff science knowledge commenting on Darwin (including dates and locations) and his travels with the Beagle, makes a quick aside about Francis Bacon and his activities in politics, science and literature, and follows up by mentioning that "some of our best writers are scientists." That comment brings a low-key but rather startled reaction from students. Unexpectedly, this esteemed English professor reads and admires science writing.
Principles of Macroeconomics
The sheer energy expended by Dr. John Vahaly as he practically dances back and forth between the chalkboard and around the room would be enough to captivate student attention.
The topic is not a simple one today. Although it's the Keynesian model, one of two equations that Vahaly requires students to understand in his "Principles of Macroeconomics," the students do not falter. The class is predominantly first-year students with "Finite Mathematics" already behind them. They are attracted to the class either because of an interest in the topic, or just as likely because the word has spread that Vahaly is a great teacher.
This Monday afternoon class is composed of six women and thirteen men gathered around the seminar table in the Honors House classroom. At one point, Vahaly is so pleased with student responses he exclaims: "We ought to have more Mondays!"
Vahaly begins the class in a careful and detailed delineation of the algebraic and economic formulas with an energy that contradicts any preconceived notion that the topic might be dry. The Keynesian model is one of those ideas that is best expressed numerically. So with careful clarity Vahaly explains the graph and proceeds to apply examples using the Keynesian model formula.
And yet, Vahaly follows the 40 minutes of applying the formula with the comment that "this is a plumbing problem. This is a bathtub . . . bear with me." (Laughter follows as he draws an improbable cross section of a bathtub filled with blue water.) "The level of the water is the GDP, the drain is open and what does that represent?. . . Yes, savings, but that is not the only leakage, taxes are leakage, imported goods are leakage . . . " and on until a clear visual and verbal image has been constructed to supplement and reinforce the more technical examination of the Keynesian model that opened the class.
Vahaly's appointment is in the department of economics in U of L's award-winning College of Business and Public Administration. An eight-time winner of the College of Business and Public Administration's Distinguished Teaching Award, Vahaly received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. He is a widely published author, and has received many grants and contracts from the private sector.
