Osler's Razor

I'm pretty sure this is the first time I have ever linked to People Magazine, but Kim Parke tipped me off to this very intriguing story there. It appears that country singer Carrie Underwood has come out in favor of marriage equality, in a very public way:

Underwood says it's actually her faith that's led her to support gay marriage. "Above all, God wanted us to love others," the recent CMT award winner said.

Not that she saw it (who knows?) but that was the heart of my CNN piece a month ago. That piece is still being read-- it's up to 16,000 recommendations on facebook, 8,500 comments, and is still garnering some interesting (and often depressing) email. It's a very complex issue, but I am heartened by the conversation that is going on. A lot has come out of that short sermon at Holy Comforter in Richmond back in May!

Meanwhile, I got my evaluations back from my spring classes at St. Thomas, and really appreciated them. There was some wonderful encouragement there, and some good advice, too. For both criminal law and criminal practice, I am planning some changes for next year, based on the feedback I am hearing. My weakest skill as a teacher is probably testing, and I am particularly struggling with writing good multiple choice tests for big classes. I'm going to do some research on better ways to do that, or find an alternative, so that Criminal Law will not be dragged down by test questions that too often approximate what Gordon Davenport once (accurately) described as a variation of the Hobbit game of "Guess what's in my pocket?"

For Crim. Prac., I think I am jamming too many exercises into the semester, and will probably eliminate one to allow for more individual feedback on the others, which I am shortchanging right now.

I hope that I am becoming a better teacher, and will keep trying to improve. After all, teaching students is the heart of my vocation, and I want that to be as good as it can be. I owe my students that.