I imagine that a class like this can teach intersectionality and critical thinking. One of my cheesiest undergrad instructors would say that every day he comes to class he teachings “life and truth.” That idea, like imagining an ideal for English 101, seems sweetly arrogant because it assumes that we understand the ideal situation or “life and truth.” However, teaching people to recognize the rights of minority groups, and to think critically about information they are presented, seems to be the best way to push students to discover their own truth in regards to life. While I am reading Derrida, Plato, Elbow, and Rhodes for all these classes, I think back to Princess Shuri in Black Panther when she says just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t work better.

In the end, I want to teach students to come back to two questions constantly: Is there anything else I can do? How can this be better? Hopefully, I can also inspire them to learn discipline to focus their answers to these questions into action. I think that is a realistic expectation of what an ideal version of this class can do. Maybe in a more ideal world the class could immediately begin affecting real world change by writing letters to the paper, to representatives, helping develop resumes for people looking for jobs, and teaching literacy in the community to people who can’t read.

My struggle in writing this keeps coming back to the idea of ideal in a classroom. Instructors and students are not ideal, so dealing with the question in a reasonable way is impossible, and imagining that things are as they aren’t seems impractical. I would be curious to see how this class works with double the possible number of projects, allowing students more choice in what they work on. I would be curious to see how the class would work with a unit on conventions and with a reading analysis tied in with a book. I would be curious to see this class begin with a discussion of classroom rules and expectations led by the students to teach them how to form a respectful environment.

In short, I’m not sure what an ideal classroom would look like, but I’m excited to work to help and always make classrooms better.