spiritualism and final essay assignments

Gosh, in the midst of talking to students about their assignment for the end of the term I realized that we've asked them to do something rather "era appropriate."  (This little phrase picking up on "developmentally appropriate" as when a two year old repeats "no, No, NO, NO," or a teenager seems always a bit unfinished, or a middle-aged professor begins to lose track of her papers.)


The "common place" blog intentionally picked up on the common place book, something Jefferson kept.  Now, we ask you/them to write a letter from 2010 to a person in the 1860s.  This reminds me, in an "era appropriate" way of the craze for spiritualism in the 19th century.  Can you imagine yourself gathered around a table with a medium who promises to be in contact with the "dear departed"?  (And, why does writing about this topic require so many scare quotes?)

More seriously, this assignment and this observation both suggest that a liberal arts education puts lively young students in conversation with dead people in the hope that the world in the future will be a place worth living in.  For Christians this notion that community extends across time, both into the past and into the life beyond, is common; but, for Americans it might be a bit of a stretch to consider how both the now dead and those not yet born are part of the conversation.  A stretch, but a valuable effort.