I'm intrigued to read a list of fifteen strange college courses, provided by the Online Colleges Blog. It includes such gems as:
- Arguing With Judge Judy: Popular 'Logic' On TV Judge Shows
- Underwater Basket Weaving
- The Joy Of Garbage
- Zombies In Popular Media
- Cyberporn And Society
- Far Side Entomology
- Myth And Science Fiction: Star Wars, The Matrix, And Lord Of The Rings
and a host of others. Read all about them at the link.
A question to parents: Would you really pay your hard-earned money in study fees to have your kids attend courses like these? If so - WHY???
To employers, I ask: Would you hire someone who's just graduated with credits like these on his degree certificate? If so - WHY???
Verily, sometimes the mind doth boggle . . .
Peter
7 comments:
Ah, but has solo synchronized swimming become a NCAA sport yet?
Underwater basked weaving, as an elective, had been around since at least the creation of the Land Grant Universities in the United States. Glad to see you can at last get credit for it. ;)
Actually, there are a couple of reasons for courses like these.
Number one, I can see where "Zombies in popular media" would be of use to a theater major, someone who's going to be writing, directing, or otherwise working with zombie movies.
Number two, and more to the point, classes like these are used to fill out the 'elective' credits you have to have, and keep your semester hours up at the level you have to take to keep your financial aid, scholarship, grants, or academic requirements. They're usually easy A's, don't require anything beyond class time, and are understood to be a way to meet the sometimes stupid requirements when you can't get into a class you need, or are carrying a heavy course load that's just a credit or two shy of your minimums. For example, someone taking advanced calculus, biology, and theories of physics might have all the brain draining coursework they can handle, but still need a credit or two on paper.
That's what I remember from my college days, anyway.
Taken in another context, I think most of the classes may serve for an actuall purpose, tought by professors who don't want students to think of their class as another boring credit. For example, Arguing with Judge Judy may be a course on introduction to basic logic.
I know I would have been far more excited about my Post WWII Soviet politics course had it been called Kicking it with Kruschev. Save basket weaving, I can attach pretty much any one of those classes with at least one respectable major, if not more.
I actually can do underwater basket weaving - though I learned it while working a kid's craft booth at a Ren Faire.
If I had to teach it (and as I have taught it) as a class, rest assured it would end up not only making something with our hands so we have physical proof of learning, but also plenty of information on adapting local plants for fibers to survive, and how the available material affected a society, its containment and transport of foodstuffs, and how weaving evolved through ages and tribes.
By the time I was done with you, you'd be able to appreciate how very much work went into surviving each day at the hunter-gatherer level, know how very much climate and geography were part of tribal culture, and how that affected human migration, as well as be able to weave baskets.
And while the ability to weave a basket may not help you turn out your TPS report in your cubicle, I will have made you think about how your environment that you live in - and that you choose to gather around you - shape who you are, and who you want to be!
That last one you mention sounds pretty cool for a writer. But they don't do stuff like that over here. Too bad.
Ahh...er...NOT my kids...
I think part of it can be traced back to the massive push for everyone to go to college. Think I
ll explore that one on my own though... ;)
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