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Dr. Stephen Herschler, assistant
professor of politics at Oglethorpe University, brought greater
understanding to his Comparative Politics of China and Japan
class by serving tea. Twice weekly students in his upper-level
class were required to bring a ceramic mug along with their
notebooks and textbook. Those who forgot their mug were to write
a haiku and email it to their classmates.
Professor Herschler introduced a different tea each week,
including basic black, green, gun powder, pu-erh, lapsang
souchong, sencha, bancha, longjing, bi luo chun and oolong. “My
idea is to open up the space in the classroom, to take the
academic edge off and to help open the students’ minds about the
differences in China and Japan. To use the variations of teas
does a similar thing in an immediate way,” Herschler said.
A majority of his students had no experience with tea other
than sweet tea, but in this lesson there was no sugar allowed.
After tasting the tea of the week, students discussed their
reactions striving to use language to effectively communicate
how each tea was different. He prompted the students by asking
them to think about tea with language commonly reserved for fine
wine: personality, mood, landscape or environment, what it
reminds you of, seasons, how it makes you feel. Students were
also required to keep a tea journal, to be typed up and
submitted at the end of the semester as part of their class
participation grade.
Each student loved certain teas while disliking others, but
Professor Herschler is certain that the divide is part of the
learning experience. “I want to reach the students through their
mind but often we are most impacted through our senses. This
exercise will have an impact in a way that words and ideas do
not. Perhaps they will use this process to help the other ideas
stick.”
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