Is Pathways and Perspectives better than Conversatio? Conversatio’s would be replacement has positioned itself as a radical departure from first year programs of the past and promises to be the answer to several generations of student’s complaints about Conversatio. As part of that replacement, the reformers have scrapped the core question of Conversatio: what is the good life, and instead replaced it with the question: what outside forces and viewpoints will impact your life. These questions offer radically different views as to what is important for first year students to devote their time. When the two questions are viewed side by side it becomes obvious that one is more beneficial for students to ask.
What is the Conversatio of a good life? The question at the heart of Conversatio is nothing less important than how you should live your life. This seems like a beneficial question for freshmen to study in the classroom, since they will almost certainly be asking themselves it over their four years here. The Conversatio program differs from the run of the mill liberal arts course by posing this question in an individualistic manner: what is the good life to you? The aim of this course isn’t acquiring outside knowledge, but rather introspection. By using the great ideas to break down our relationship with ourselves, our community, and the divine, students are ideally seeking to better understand themselves. This is the time for students to ask these questions, as they’re entering the period when their identity is most in flux. When you’re going to bed asking yourself, “who am I”, it’s nice to have some guidance. The questions posed in Conversatio go beyond the course though, they are something to be consistently re-answered as we grow all four years here, and indeed for the rest of our lives.
On the other hand, there is the question of, “what outside forces will impact my life?” Rather than look inward, Pathways and Perspectives is demanding students look outward and see the world taking shape around them. The course wants students to be better armed to analyze such things as Climate Change and AI; forces that will rearrange the world we live in. The idea is
that students will have analytical tools and some preconceived notions of what these forces are as they go through day to day lives, and make informed decisions based on this knowledge. To have Perspectives so we choose better Pathways. It is an interesting question, though radically different from that of Conversatio. To answer the respective questions, the courses want students to grow in very different ways. While Conversatio wants to give students tools to understand who they are, Pathways and Perspectives wants students to have the basic analytic tools of a Natural Science course and Computer Science course to supplement what you will develop through your major and the core.
Both these questions are valuable, but one is much better poised to help us develop as human beings in our four years here. If done right, the questions posed in Conversatio will change how students think for the better and get them searching for a better understanding of themselves. This isn’t something done so directly in any other course. “What is the Good Life to me” is a question that demands asking, and one each student should have the privilege of pursuing. Currently, the proposed reforms want to replace the ideas of “Color of Water” with “The Big Thirst” as the main focus of the course. The Conversatio program needs changes, a lot of them, but throwing out the core question is not one of them. If you agree that students should have support in learning more about themselves, then let the reform committee know. Send an email to some of the people listed below telling them to keep the good life at Saint Anselm, because as you know, civic engagement is a key part of the good life. Names of People Who Can Change Things: Dr Schoeppner-Torres, Sean Parr, F. Joseph Loughrey, Sue Gabert, Joseph Favazza, Mark Cronin