Peer-taught classes will be available this Fall
‘Students at my school are smart. They should teach.’ -Thomas Jefferson, probably
The Cavalier Education Program is offering students the opportunity to teach their very own interdisciplinary subjects this fall in credit/no credit classes.
Run through Student Council, this program lets students share their passions outside of traditional course curriculum with their peers.
For example, second year Luke Williams will be teaching a course called “Dance Dance Evolution.”
“I’m teaching a class about dance and how it fits within historical, cultural, and racial contexts to inform the dance that we use today as a form of self-expression,” Luke said. “We will grapple with questions of appropriation, stereotypes, biases, self-confidence and responsible dancing.”
Luke Williams
Second year Nivedha Kannapadi will be teaching a course called “Contraceptive Technology: Science and Ethics of Birth Control for Men and Women in the US.” After researching maternal morbidity in India this past summer, Nivedha became interested in the cultural context surrounding birth control.
“This experience really made me think critically about the culture of birth control in the United States, especially with respect to the pill,” Nivedha said.
“After being exposed to a population that used oral hormonal contraceptive methods infrequently, I saw the daily and continued intake of a hormonal contraceptive supplement that is so common in the US from a different perspective.”
Nivedha Kannapadi
Nivedha’s goal for her class is to “spark an interest in students to refrain from blindly accepting the current birth control system, to think critically about its flaws and to generate ideas for improvement.”
She wants to learn from the discussions with her students: “I think the most exciting part of teaching a class about something that I am so interested in is the opportunity to hear other students’ perspectives and ideas.”
Nivedha also plans to incorporate guest speakers and trips into her curriculum.
Luke hopes he and his students can replace the statement “Dance like no one is watching” with “Dance like you don’t need some old cliche to tell you what to do.”
He is also looking forward to having “a low-stress, high-energy environment” with his students to foster self-confidence and joy regarding dance.
Students can apply to teach one of these INST courses for one or two credits after taking the Pedagogy Seminar, INST 3150.