When students choose to attend GVSU, it’s often because they are sold on the kind of education it provides: one that promises small class sizes, close work with professors, and a general sense that they won’t just be a “number.” Also, students are often compelled by the fact that this young university is, for them, a kind of frontier: though there are indeed plenty of groups and movements to join, students can still found organizations and lead movements that will cultivate GVSU’s image in the world and define its identity.

This sense of discovery is closely linked to the liberal arts education that the university provides: the study of culture, the humanities, the sciences that are all meant to give students a robust education so that they might do something greater than just “get a job”—they can be leaders, shapers of their university and the world. Professors have been able to provide this unique kind of education by prioritizing innovation in teaching over research. In Peter Chhum’s article “Honors Reenacts French Revolution” about a new pedagogical method called “Reacting to the Past” (RTTP), we find an example of this brand of innovation. RTTP is used by professors in the Honors College, in particular Professor Galbraith of the History Department, who wish to place their students in the historical moments that they intend to study. In class, students take on the role of the key players of each moment—when studying the French Revolution, for instance, students become Jacobins, Feuillants, members of the French clergy and the hungry crowd. Students use class time to debate as the leaders of the Revolution would—not to reenact the past but create it anew, resurrect the period and battle again over the issues that defined it.

My own experience as a student in the inaugural semester of RTTP in the Honors College has led me to this conclusion: that RTTP encapsulates what is best about the kind of education that can be had at GVSU. Here are my reasons.

1) To succeed in RTTP, students must understand the ideas of a certain time period not simply to regurgitate them on a test, but rather to make use of them in creative ways: to debate, to recreate history. Thus, in order to be effective, students need to understand the nuances of each side’s views—to acquire a deep knowledge not only of the ideas but also the beliefs, passions and convictions that drove each group. The results are manifold: students become better rhetoricians, capable of understanding the many sides of any debate in order to develop an informed and nuanced argument; perhaps more importantly, students also develop genuine empathy by having to internalize the beliefs and passions of each side, by having to acknowledge the fundamental humanity of their opponents. These are the intended consequences of any worthwhile liberal arts education.

2) RTTP reveals to students that history is not merely driven by the virtue of good ideas. Instead, students realize that important historical moments have been defined by myriad factors: at their worst, the influence of petty politics, ruthlessness, hatred, obstinacy, ideological entrenchment, human frailty; at their best, the victory of selflessness, courage, humanitarianism, and principled compromise. Students come to these realizations by living them. In the game, students must make and break alliances, and experience the temptation to distort the views of their opponents. These temptations amplify the importance of ethics in debate and apply clearly to the issues being discussed in culture today.

As I have said, RTTP is the perfect kind of education for students at GVSU. Why? Among many other reasons, RTTP is perfect because it reveals to students their own authentic capacity to effect real change in culture—to have a vision for the world and be bold enough to enact it. But this realization is accompanied by many others: the importance of civil debate and rhetorical skill, of empathy and fair-mindedness, of the virtues of compromise but also of the occasional necessity to be uncompromising. These are the values that the liberal arts are meant to inculcate; not only that, they are the values that GVSU needs to instill in students who will continue to shape its image and develop its culture. If GVSU will continue to expand and improve, it will be because students have developed a culture of intellectual confidence and spirited debate. That is why we should encourage more professors to make use of RTTP and any other innovative pedagogy that enhances the effects of a liberal arts education.