Table of Contents
Updating the Pro-Life Classroom
Current CCBR classroom:
- Strengths: good material, probably the best out there of any pro-life group
- Weaknesses:
- Essay format= not ideal for self-study or group study
- How to present the material in a more effective, more engaging way?
- Too linear, not ideal for group use or for an individual who wants to dive deeper into 1 topic
Updated Classroom
- Polished version of the UTSFL Classroom
- Keep the university course code system - a good format
- Lesson/seminar-style modules
- Polished content that can be easily added to in future
- lesson-plan style: something that works well for both self-study and for leading group discussion
- Footnotes or links for deeper self-study e.g. “click here for the whole documentary on Emmett Till” or something
- Ideas to increase engagement with the content and website:
- Quizzes
- Add a gamification element - *see if the apologetics exam has some stuff we could pull
- Stack exchange
- *would need to be monitored for pro-choice trolls
- Future Wishlist
- Videos
- Practice dialogue, e.g. role-playing examples
- For Gerrit to record–> should all be under 1 min.?
- Testimony of just HR argument
- Kerri-Ann
- Polaroid analogy
- Tikvah
- CG/A/Q:
- Circumstances - general (ex. poverty) - Craig
- “Choice”/bodily autonomy e.g. drunk driving analogy or something - Emily
- The rape exception - Kim
- Embryology
- Before/at/after: can someone explain it quickly?
- embryo vs. amoeba - Oriyana
- one of the SLED categories - me, if time
Content
- First objective: polish up the core of it enough to make it useful for people with a moderate knowledge base e.g. campus leaders
- “Program requirements”
- Prioritize: Apologetics and Strategy first (we have the content but need to polish)
- Heart Apologetics and Politics: Have some content, but need more :. Can start fleshing out 100-level but less of a priority
- Seminars to Update/Polish:
- Apologetics
- 100
- PBA100Y
- Maybe: move PBA202H to 100 level? I.e. “what is abortion?” Surgical methods, plus video?
- Move “PBA120Y why victim photography” to strategy?
- Recommend bringing back PBA105H as a Personhood 1.0 seminar
- 200
- PBA 201H - embryology
- PBA205h: update to start with a more general seminar on personhood?
- responding to challenges re: personhood of the pre-born (e.g. discriminatory history of personhood) – or would this be more appropriate in the 100 level?
- Functionalism can then fall under this as extended reading?
- Other things re: personhood?
- PBA203Y - medical dilemmas
- Link to further reading re: maternal health in countries with stricter abortion laws vs. in countries with more liberal abortion laws
- PBA210H: Bodily autonomy 1.0
- 300
- PBA303H: double-effect reasoning
- PBA305Y: Peter Singer’s philosophy - speciesism and functionalism
- PBA310: Violinist (bodily autonomy 2.0)
- Strategy
- 100
- PBS100Y
- Move PBA120Y here as first one?
- PBS120Y
- CCBR’s material can be pretty easily slotted in here
- 200
- PBS200Y
- but break this down a lot, into 2-3 seminars?
- Reforming our movement…
- Theory of change
- EndTheKilling plan
Layout
- How will website be organized?
- By stream?
- By “playlist” of recommended viewing?
- Default setting is important as most will opt for this setting
- How should we organize it by default? What are alternatives?
- Separate page with a “guide to the classroom”? E.g. self-study vs. group study…recommend different “batches”…
- Photos to highlight–featured presentation of certain, more important seminars
Sources for Content (Internal and External)
- UTSFL classroom and CCBR classroom
- Websites
- Secular Pro-Life http://blog.secularprolife.org/
- Pros: there’s a ton of good content in here. Great links for further reading - they have short-and-sweet blog posts that explore 1 issue helpfully e.g. http://blog.secularprolife.org/2016/12/response-to-argument-from-investigation.html
- Cons: it’s not topically organized, have to really hunt for stuff; also, because they have *so many* contributors, the content can vary in quality and/or in “purity” (e.g. some of the contributors support the rape exception, I think some support health-of-mother exceptions, but if we’re linking to specific posts then this shouldn’t be an issue)
-
- Pros: some really good articles e.g. constructed vs. developing. Draw from the content but update the format
- Cons: quite dated, has a biblical focus that isn’t as relevant to CCBR’s website
- Equal Rights Institute https://blog.equalrightsinstitute.com/
- Pros: has heart apologetics and dialogue strategies, unlike many other groups; one of the only groups to take relational/heart apologetics seriously; website is well-organized and has a variety of learning formats (videos, podcasts, articles)
- Cons: the ERI approach doesn’t work as well in an activism/AVP context. They can be almost…too nice. Very focused on building friendships/relationships with pro-choicers, which is important in our daily lives but is impractical in say, a CC
- Books
- Love Unleashes Life (SG)
- Case for Life - Klusendorf– need to give this a skim-through
- Trent Horn: Persuasive Pro-Life (skim through)
- Beckwith: Defending life (Is this one too philosophical…?)
Misc.
- feedback from group leaders – over the summer and/or in the fall?
- Ex, beyond UTSFL/TAA and Lifeline/LAA: would NAA like to test out the content and give feedback? Tikvah for Ottawa group? Other campus leaders who’d be willing to provide feedback (Talia, Paul, etc.)?
- have 3-4 modules which, when grouped together, could function for an intro apologetics workshop? Useful for XAA groups, campuses, etc.