Teaching...

I've taught a lot of classes in my day, but I still marvel at the quality of students here. As an experiment, I decided that I would raise one question and then count the number of questions that would follow. My question was, "What determines limitations on the free expression of religion?" After receiving 5 or 6 good answers, I received 14 additional questions, taking up roughly 1.25 hours. Among the follow-up questions:

"Does the free expression of religion transcend legality?"

"What court cases demonstrate the priveleging of historically-dominated groups?"

"Do tax breaks for large churches constitute a de facto violation of the establishment clause?"

And so forth. These are direct quotes, by the way. Some of these kids are 15 and graduating high school. Almost all of them have already been admitted to at least one top-tier institution. They study for fun. Teaching these kids is such a great challenge--I really didn't think I would enjoy teaching them this much. They really push you and they never stop until 1130.

As a result of all this, I've developed something I like to call "bewildered face." This is my general look when I'm in this class. One of the kids was kind enough to photograph me mid-bewilderment. This was my look after a girl in the front row asked the 2nd question above: