help!
I have a student in my Comedy and Tragedy class who knows more about dramatic theory than I do. (Potentially much more.) He's already critiquing my paper prompt; while I asked students to refer to Aristotle, he wants to refer to (and here I quote his e-mail) "Nietzsche, Socrates, Horace, Racine, Castelvetro and the modernist movements in tragedy." (This is for a 3-4 page paper.)
I know I have read most of these philosophers, but I couldn't tell you right now what they wrote about tragedy. And I'm kind of beginning to panic.
How can I turn this into something positive (and avoid self-destructing)?
posted by sagejenn @ 11:35 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
You could say "No"
Or you could could say that he has to use Aristotle as his main argument but he could put it 1 paragraph about the other philosophers. And admitting ignorance is healthy. Its nothing to be ashamed of. And it builds trust between students and teachers when the teacher admits he or she doesn't know something but is willing to work with the student to figure it out.
I agree with Jeremy. Tell him that you want his main focus to be Aristotle. It could be just that he doesn't know enough about Aristotle to use him as the central argument, but doesn't want to admit it. Also, while he may know alot about all those others, the rest of your class may not, and that wouldn't be fair to them to require all that prior knowledge.
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