Joey Lipp

My Teaching Philosophy & Four Real Students

As a Classical scholar and teacher I aim to provide fellow citizens with an education in words. I
imagine that a citizen is a community member with a vote. I further imagine that an education in
words includes, among other things, skills in literary and historical analysis, eloquent exposition of the
rhetorical aims of a work of literature, and critical amazement of the wordsmiths art.
The following student sketches illustrate how I help students in four aspects of undergraduate
education, with an eye toward their own success in whatever career they choose: Leadership &
Service, Membership in a Global Society, Liberal Arts, and Historic Awareness. I include some
personal details about the students to emphasize the holistic nature of their learning experience under
my teaching. Alec, Teja, Gwen, and Joshua are real undergraduates in my classes at Ohio State, where
I currently teach (Fall 2015).
Leadership and Service Alec. Alec and I had lunch together on Veterans Day, 2015 on Ohio
States dime. Alec, currently enrolled in my course Sports & Spectacles in the Ancient World, is a
freshman in Ohio States honors scholar program. As part of his intellectual training and character
building, he must participate in a variety of courses on leadership and service, and for one particular
course he is allowed to take a professor to lunch. I was honored when he asked me to be this
professor for him. The aim of our lunch is not only for Alec to get to know me better, but also for
him to interview me about the intersection of leadership and my career.
Alec is an impressive young man. Coming from an all-boys Catholic high school in the Midwest, he is
eager to explore his faith and to prepare for a career in broadcast journalism at college. And hes been
so inspired by my teaching this semester that he plans to enroll next term in my course Christians in
the Greco-Roman World. He is also in the midst of declaring a Classics minor based our frequent
conversations before and after class.
What about Alecs questions on leadership? My experience suggests two points on leaders and
service: first, the best leaders serve, and second, leadership is an earned role. When pressed, as a
Classicist, to give a philosophy of leadership in a pinch, I think of the character Zeus in one of the
most famous poems from Greek antiquity, the Theogony by Hesiod. In this work, all the gods of
Olympus beg Zeus to be their king based on his service on their behalf before he occupied an official
leadership role. Zeus stands in stark contrast to the other king-like figures in the poem, Ouranos and
Kronos, who reigned as despots (and paid dearly for it).
With this in mind, Ive aimed to earn Alecs trust so that he will follow me. Once recognized as a
leader, Ive attempted to model servant leadership by helping him, focusing on his wellness, and being
a steady source of justice in the classroom and in our private conversations. This means, further in
the case of Alec who has eagerly run up behind me as a follower, walking beside him towards his future
role of citizen leader. But that Veterans Day, on our way to tackling his future, we first walked sideby-side across campus to lunch.
Membership in a Global Society Teja. Early morning, Oct. 1, 2015, I opened my inbox to this
email from Teja, an undergraduate currently enrolled in my course Classical Mythology: Telling
Stories with a Point. These were the first words I read in October:

Dear Dr. Lipp: I just wanted to let you know how much your class has inspired me. My
father always suggested I read ancient Sanskrit scripture to learn from tales of Indian
mythology. I arrogantly dismissed this, saying we had more to learn from reality than mere
fictional stories. Thank you for teaching me the real value of a myth, and rekindling my
interest in scripture, whether it be ancient Greek, Hebrew, or Sanskrit.
With Humility, Teja
Here Teja expresses a tension between her local traditions and global awareness. Indeed, globalization
and an intellectual climate that prizes a modern scientific epistemology over narrative alternatives
dimmed her vision of whats beautiful, possible, and wise. I am honored to have had the opportunity
not only to point her back to close readings of literary works, but also to re-fire her confidence in the
wisdom-giving potential of localized scriptures. Teja now comfortably inhabits a dual citizenship
our global society and her family traditions. Her father would be proud.
Liberal Arts Gwen. Gwen, enrolled in my course Greek Civilization: Life of the Athenian
Citizen as a sophomore, nominated me for an Outstanding Faculty Award (which I write about in
my cover letter and CV). The award aims to recognize valuable contributions to creating an
extraordinary student experience. Liberal arts are those skills which contribute to the decisionmaking potential of a community member with a vote: thinking about choice and their reasons
justice, beauty, and goodness. These are the concepts that I helped Gwen and her classmates explore
through the lives and literary works of the ancient Athenians. And Gwen expressed to me her
gratitude for helping her develop in and out of the classroom as a citizen-thinker.
My experience with Gwen further proves to me that undergraduate students are eager to explore big
ideas and to bring their personal experiences, desires, and values to bear on their college education.
Since everyone is in some sense a citizen everyone, after all, is a decision-maker I find enormous
satisfaction and success with approaching all of my students as fellow citizens and designing my
Classics courses to educate students in their various citizen capacities. I am honored to call Gwen my
student I am more honored to call her a fellow decision-maker.
Historic Awareness Joshua. A fiery-red-haired junior at Ohio State, Joshua has a serious case
of chronic tardiness. He balances this, however, with active engagement during class, a good heart,
and a curious mind. I know this because Ive had Joshua in two classes (Introduction to the New
Testament and Christians in the Greco-Roman World). Plus, this fall hes been interviewing me as
part of a class on leadership (different than Alecs).
Its been a joy to help Joshua develop as an undergraduate scholar, and an important part of his
development pertains to his religious identity: Joshua is a Christian in the Reformed tradition. I can
easily recall, in particular, the informed eloquence with which Joshua argued in a concise, one-page
essay that Pliny, as Roman governor of Bithynia-Pontus (ca. 110AD), represented more of a threat to
the Christians in that time and place than Celsus, as Greco-Roman philosopher (ca. 150AD), did for
his readers in the mid-second century. Joshuas close readings of Plinys Letters and Origens Contra
Celsum in historical context were on point and an important step in his own intellectual development
and religious journey.
It is my hope that Joshua continues to draw on his education in words, begun in my classrooms and
continued in our email conversations, to reform not only himself but also his family, his church, his
colleagues, his fellow citizens, and our collective, global community.
Who are the Alecs, Tejas, Gwens, and Joshuas in my future classes?