Core Readings and Student Choice
Bard Seminar is a college program and a learning community. As such, it is both similar to and different from other courses you may have taken in the past. It is a rigorous college environment for students who want to be challenged and who envision a bright future for themselves. It is also a community with rights and responsibilities that all members of the community must accept in order to work. Section I of the contract is the expectations of Bard College and of your professor.
These are as follows:
Being open
To the ideas, voice, and vision of every member of the community
To listening sometimes when you want to speak and speaking sometimes when you just want to listen
To newness, growth, change, and difference
To hard work, to reading, to writing
To many truths and few right/wrong answers
To not liking everything that you read or do, to not expecting to be entertained
Respecting
All members of the community including the professor, your peers, and yourself
The right of others to learn, even when you might not feel comfortable
When others have the mic, that their words hold equal weight to yours
Class time is time to work and learn, it’s also community time, that’s why we show up every day we are able to and put distractions away
Taking responsibility
For your actions and words
For thinking original thoughts, to not stealing the words/thoughts of others or looking to artificial intelligence for “answers”
For the success and wellbeing of others in the room
For bringing the best self that you can every day
For learning outside of the classroom including homework
Syllabus
Bard Seminar Syllabus -- any questions?
During our next class, we will vote on student choice readings (we have to come to an agreement on which readings we will choose as a group, rather than as individual students)
Student Demographics Survey (required of all students to receive Bard College credits)
Reflection: main takeaways from today's lesson?