The ACE 256 Experiment

Today marks the end of first week of the Spring Semester. To go along with the normal whirlwind of the start of classes, I have added the self-imposed burden of trying to completely redesign one of the courses I am teaching. The ACE 256 experiment was born out of the recognition that every, and this is really not an exaggeration, every textbook about coaching has a section about the importance of having a Coaching Philosophy. The majority of coaching courses (both for academic credit and those for certification) have students discern and then articulate their coaching philosophy and coaching interview processes include a question about a candidate's coaching philosophy. Yet, with all of this attention on coaching philosophies, there is very little actual "philosophy" in this exercise. So Exploring ways to infuse the work some of the prominent moral, ethical and political philosophers has become my quest. The first week included the introduction of the "thought-experiment" and some discussion of Utilitarianism and finally an introduction to John Rawls' Principles of Justice and

Original Position. The photo is of some one the group work that was done trying to design a format for determining a champion of college football as a project in distributive justice (side note, not a lot of distribution in most of the proposals). Next Week, more work from behind "The Veil of Ignorance."