I recently offered my students a “quiz” in which I asked them three simple questions, and gave them a week to asnwer them briefly. The class is a “great books” approach to classical Asian philosophies. The questions I asked were these:

  1. What are you learning in this class? What are three or four things that you have learned that you did not know before this semester?

  2. What questions have arisen for you as we have read these texts together? Are there things we have not talked about in class, that arise from our texts, and that you wonder about? What questions do you have?

  3. As we read and discuss these texts, what are you learning about yourself and your place in the world? This one might be hard to answer, but do take a little time to consider it. It is, after all, one of the themes that runs through all our texts!

I’m not going to share my students' replies, but I am going to share a few snippets that make me glad. The students have said that they are learning

  • How to read and write words in Sanskrit, and to recognize and write a few characters in Chinese. This is a course requirement, but I’m still glad they’re learning!
  • How to read a book. This one is a little surprising, but it’s also quite pleasing to see. They’re picking up on what I repeat about the cycle of Contemplation, Conversation, Commentary.
  • Great texts from other places, and the cultures and histories that accompany them.

This all makes my heart glad.