Dr. Sam Richards teaches Sociology 119 (SOC 119) at Penn State University. This is the course description:
Sam seeks creative ways to address topics along side of student volunteers as a way of generating their authentic curiosity and stimulating thinking. Sam’s task is to introduce topics and then guide and facilitate conversations between the students in the class. Students from around the world and from a wide range of cultural backgrounds inside the United States enroll in the course each semester, and Sam has traveled widely, lived outside the U.S. for several years, and considers himself to be a “generalist with a global orientation.” The result is that there are practically an unlimited number of interesting topics that Sam and his students can discuss in class. In fact, as Sam says, “No class is ever repeated.”
Watch this short video clip in which Dr. Richards sagely explains that we needn’t feel we must learn all about world conflicts and be perturbed about them. He says,
Wise words.“Why should you be paying attention to a conflict on the other side of the world that doesn’t really involve you? . . . What we need is for people like you, like all of us to be happy and spread peace in the world. Don’t harm anybody. Be kind.”
