Faculty

I teach at Trinity School at River Ridge because being faculty here is not primarily about teaching, but about participating in a community of learners, which forms the life of the school. In a liberal arts college, I fell in love with books, philosophical ones especially, and upon graduation I went abroad with Peace Corps to Moldova in Eastern Europe. This was an extraordinary experience, and it also allowed me plenty of leisure time to read as I liked. Before launching into a career I hoped to figure out how to integrate my newfound form of play with the matter of the “seriousness” of “real life.” Thankfully, I landed at Trinity School where I can both play and work. I teach two different humane letters seminars, and the fun for me consists largely in the surprising twists and turns each day and each year takes. I take delight whenever good conversation happens, and I have something new to think about. I also enjoy returning time and again to Kierkegaard’s playground of pseudonymous philosophy — my first love. If this were my whiteboard, I’d have these quotes up to introduce my love of play in the classroom: The peculiar phenomenon of conversation is a state of “seizure” or “being gripped”, in which the conversation has a life of its own. We cannot, of course, help being reminded here of the seizure experienced in play. – Wolfhart Pannenberg To reach an understanding in a dialogue is not merely a matter of putting oneself forward and successfully asserting one’s own point of view, but being transformed into a communion in which we do not remain what we were. – Hans-Georg Gadamer