Thriving in Academe

Tales from Real Life
Liberating the Syllabus from P(3)-Ville

Until 15 years ago, my course syllabi lived amiably in P(3)-ville—prosaic, puny, palliative. But conspiring against inertia was my mentor, Sophia Peterson, who believed in elegant syllabi that resided in a shining city on a hill.

She poked and prodded, nudging me to grasp a simple truth: moving from this village to the shining city pays educational dividends in perpetuity. I was ready to take the risk.

Gradually my syllabi grew in length, and Sophia's truth became palpable. Striving for exemplary syllabi forced me to think through my courses more complexly. My penchant for getting lost in the details of the topic slowly but surely became transformed into a vision of each course's essence.

My immigration from P(3)-ville became official three years ago when I expanded one of my syllabi to 23 pages. Why? Because I had written an introduction to the social sciences and included lesson plans as part of the syllabus destined for the text's instructor's manual.

I then realized that including lesson plans in my introductory course saves time in subsequent semesters, helps to replicate peak classroom experiences and bury failed experiments, and promotes a climate of constant improvement—when edited after each class.

Thanks to Sophia, I have never looked back at P(3)-ville.

—Mike Strada
West Liberty State College and West Virginia University

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