The (Holy) Ghost in the Machine

BYU faculty are encouraged to bring gospel principles and discussions into their teaching and into the classroom. Even in computer science, as illustrated in a recent BYU NewsNet article. I'll just pull a couple of direct quotes from the article that are either quoting or paraphrasing BYU computer science faculty:

• "I feel very strongly that the whole idea of learning by faith is as applicable to computer science as any other endeavor."
• "Personal revelation is key to developing new ideas, solving difficult problems, teaching students in a way that is most meaningful to them."
• "You can't teach without the Spirit."

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's not like anyone goes to BYU to get away from discussions of God or Mormonism in the classroom. On the other hand, I'm sure there are a few Comp Sci students who sometimes slink down a little lower in their chairs and say to themselves, "Can't we just talk about algorithms today?"

Comments

[Ronan]

All things being equal then, BYU students should be better at computer science than their peers. Teaching at BYU must be hard. What if you wake up in a foul mood and think, "I can't be bothered to be spiritual today"?

[Guy Murray]

Living the gospel in everyday life must be hard. What if you wake up in a foul mood and think, "I can't be bothered to be spiritual today."

[Matt W.]

I don't see a problem with every teacher being religiously accessable. I think it is an exaggeration to say the Comp Sci classes are going to some bizarre extreme.

[Ronan]

Guy,
My, you're feeling spiritual today, old boy!

[Guy Murray]

Yes, and I don't even teach at BYU.

[Geoff J]

We call it the Spirit, others call it a Muse. It's all the same thing so this seems mostly like a semantics question. Everyone in education wants the light bulb to come on for students or for students to have epiphanies regardless of how they describe that process right?

[Jared*]

"You can't teach without the Spirit."

And yet the biologists soldier on. :)

Other than religion, the only class I remember having opening prayers in was a chemistry class. But it was an intro level class, so I don't think much divine assistance was really needed.

[Jon in Austin]

... just one more reason I'm glad I got my computer science degree from the University of Utah.

Not to discount the fact that the spirit does help with academic studies, but the spirit isn't going to qualify you or the teacher to learn and understand the material if due diligence isn't applied.

[lief]

My experience with BYU comp sci was having the last class of the semester dedicated to the professor's bizzare explications of certain passages from the D&C. Yes, I sunk lower in my seat. This was just before evaluations were handed out that asked something to the effect of how spiritual the instructor was.

[Seth R.]

Honestly, I don't see that this whole push at BYU to integrate "spirituality" into the teaching approach is even necessary.

In fact, I think it's largely a waste of time in classes outside the the social sciences.

The main spiritual impact that BYU has on its students is by providing a community of believers for the students to live in. And that's really just about it.

Maoist propaganda campaigns don't make one bit of difference one way or the other.

[Captain Curmudgeon]

Not that many years ago, I was tuning through the channels in SLC and found on KBYU a devotional forum. It was the chairman of the Math Department at BYU who was explaining that testimonies did not necessarily contain a valid proof of the Mean Value Theorem and that if you wanted to pass Freshman Calc, that in addition to fasting and prayer, you'd better attend class, read the text book, and do the exercises.

That was refreshing.