Okay so. Last week Anthony and I were listening to our "favorite" morning show and they were doing what they call "news." The first awesome.
They talked about an agency that promised $300 to homeless people and drug addicts if they go to the doctor and sterilize themselves. I think this is brilliant. Then people are not bringing crack babies into the world or having a baby that they cannot afford.
Personally I think this should be a government program. And! If people want welfare for their existing babies they should have to get the same thing done. A basic "you want money? get fixed." policy.
So then they moved on to the second half of the segment where the began reading a list of courses that can be found in a catalog at some leading universities.
The List follows: BTW The asides in the list that are not italicized are not me... they staid this on the radio... This compounds the idiocy, you'll see.
- At Santa Clara University, you can take a class called The Joy of Garbage, where you explore "the technical aspects of decomposition and waste processes.
- At Cornell University, you can take a class called Tree Climbing.
- At Georgetown University, you can take a class called Philosophy and "Star Trek".
- At UCLA, you can take a class called Queer Musicology, which explores pressing issues like "the possibility that being gay makes music by gay composers sound different to you than it would if you were straight."
- At Pitzer College in California, you can take a class called Learning from YouTube, which . . . shocker . . . consists of "students watching, discussing, and commenting on YouTube videos."
This is the one that I was least interested in and thought it could be a slacker class. It depends on how it is represented. -- incidentally this is the one that the radio personalities thought was "kinda interesting"
- At Stanford University, you can take a class called iPhone Application Programming.
HERE ARE TEN OF THE MOST RIDICULOUS COLLEGE COURSES YOU CAN TAKE
I really couldn't stand how stupid they sounded I still have a little throw-up flavor in my mouth from them being so dumb. *giggle* like that is a legitimate class! who wants to make money off of apple!?Needless to say I didn't hear the last few which I found on the internet later in order to post this blog.
- At Alfred University in New York, you can take a class called Maple Syrup; The Real Thing.
- At Frostburg State University in Maryland, you can take a class called The Science of "Harry Potter".
- At Centre College in Kentucky, you can take a class called The Art of Walking.
- And at Reed College in Oregon, you can take a class called Underwater Basket Weaving.
No, really.
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So, this list is brought to us by the Huffington Post. To them I have to say, good fucking job. You now appear to a multitude of educated people like a bunch of moronic, ill-advised High School children. Did you even attend college?
Let me ask you this: When you were in college getting your "journalism" degree did you only take English courses?
Here is how I see it. College is supposed to be fun. It isn't supposed to be an endless series of meaningless classes on your way toward a degree. You are supposed to be able to broaden your horizon, think in new ways, undertake challenges that you would never have considered previously in your academic career.
I can forgive the radio personalities that made this list available to Las Vegas, part of Sacramento and the internet... They are for lack of a more profound word... dumb... they are profoundly dumb. That is absolutely their appeal. I argue with them in my head and am fired up to start my day. Not only to I feel smarter and more justified in my opinions, I am ready to take on opposition.
This faux pas is on you Huffington Post. You dare to imply that these classes are both ridiculous but have no academic value. Lets take a look shall we?
Ten Of The Most Ridiculous College Courses You Can Take:
- At Santa Clara University, you can take a class called The Joy of Garbage, where you explore "the technical aspects of decomposition and waste processes.
I cannot find anything about this course because, it appears you have to be a student to view the course catalog online. But understating the composting process, waste management, decomposition... all of that is important. PS. I took a class that had us go to the waste treatment plant... makes me think about all the processes that go into enabling me to flush my toilet.
- At Cornell University, you can take a class called Tree Climbing.
- PE 1657 Tree Climbing
Fall, spring. Fee charged. All equipment is included in course fee. No experience necessary.Whether you are a rain forest canopy researcher, an arborist, or just a kid at heart, everyone loves to climb trees. Recall the excitement and your sense of adventure when you first crawled into the branches to look inside a bird’s nest. Then you swung from limb to limb without a thought of ropes and harnesses. But what about that big tree down the street you always wanted to climb, but couldn’t reach the first branch? Cornell Outdoor Education’s Tree Climbing course will teach you how to get up into the canopy of any tree, to move around, even to climb from one tree to another without touching the ground.
I don't know about you, but this sounds like a pretty fun and interesting PE course. You have to take one anyway, why take Weightlifting for the 11th time? I am sure that this course is also required for a few botanical science classes.
- At Georgetown University, you can take a class called Philosophy and "Star Trek".
PHIL-180 Philosophy and Star TrekFaculty: Wetzel, LindaStar Trek is very philosophical. What better way, then, to learn philosophy, than to watch Star Trek, read philosophy, and hash it all out in class? That's the plan. This course is basically an introduction to certain topics in metaphysics and epistemology philosophy, centered around major philosophical questions that come up again and again in Star Trek. In conjunction with watching Star Trek, we will read excerpts from the writings of great philosophers, extract key concepts and arguments and then analyze those arguments. The questions that we will wrestle with include:
I. Is time travel possible? Could we go back and kill our grandmothers? What is the nature of time?
II. Could reality be radically different from what "we" (I?) think? Could we be brains in vats?
III. What is the relation between a person's mind and his functioning brain--are they separate substances or identical? Can persons survive death? Can computers think? Is Data a person?
IV. What is a person? When do we have one person, and when do we have two (think of the episodes where people "split" or are "fused")?
V. Do people have free will, or are they determined by the laws of nature to do exactly what they wind up doing, while believing they have free will? Or both? What is free will?
Course requirements: Four papers, 1000 words long, typed, double-spaced, on topics suggested a week in advance in class. Participation in discussions.Credits: 3Prerequisites: None
I am sorry, I have seen slouch course descriptions, this isn't one. Who says Philosophy has to be all old dead dudes? Ethics is ethics is philosophy of ethics. Star Trek is based on Greek moralistic plays... put a giant mask on Captain Kirk and we are discussing philosophy the way Plato would have wanted us to.
- At UCLA, you can take a class called Queer Musicology, which explores pressing issues like "the possibility that being gay makes music by gay composers sound different to you than it would if you were straight."
- Mitchell Morris specializes in music at the fin-de-siècle, Russian and Soviet music, 20th century American music, opera, rock and soul, and gay/lesbian studies. He has published essays on gay men and opera, disco and progressive rock, musical ethics, and contemporary music in journals such as repercussions and American Music as well as in collections such as Beyond Structural Hearing?, Musicology and Difference, En travesti, and Audible Traces. He is currently preparing a book entitled The Persistence of Sentiment: Essays on Pop Music in the 70s and at work on a project entitled Echo of Wilderness: Music, Nature, and Nation in the United States, 1880–1945.
I couldn't find the course description because they only have a few years worth of catalogs, however this is the guy how teaches the class. He got his Phd at Berkley. Incidentally when I was poking around in the Musicology department I also found a class on Gay and Lesbian perspectives on Pop music... this class escaped attack though. This is what I have to say on the subject. It is important--to understanding another human being-- to view things from their perspective. The course, I am sure, studies everything about what made the homosexual composer's life different and how it effected the music.
- At Pitzer College in California, you can take a class called Learning from YouTube, which . . . shocker . . . consists of "students watching, discussing, and commenting on YouTube videos."
- The first college course entirely about, and primarily occurring on YouTube was taught by Professor of Media Studies Alex Juhasz this fall at Pitzer College. The ground rules were simple and few. All the classwork and assignments (reading, writing, viewing and video production) occurred on and about YouTube. Juhasz and her class caught the attention of the news media and were featured in numerous newspaper articles as well as television and radio broadcasts. Visit www.youtube.com/mediapraxisme to learn more.
Makes sense that they have a YouTube channel, no? So how is this any different than any other Pop Culture studies class? This is exactly the medium to use to study the Now generation. It is immediate, it is narcissistic, it is capitalist... How in the world do you expect to understand our culture with out it?
- At Stanford University, you can take a class called iPhone Application Programming.
I am sorry, but I do not need to go and find the course description for this one. Any programmer will tell you that this is a core class. Duh. There is java, there is PHP and then there is iPhone development...
- At Alfred University in New York, you can take a class called Maple Syrup; The Real Thing.
- HONR 172 - Maple Syrup: The Real Thing
"Wanted: Someone with a background in meteorology, chemistry, botany, forestry, art, and cookery who is also a nature lover with lots of patience. Must enjoy long hours of hard work in the snow, cold, and mud." Even though this is an accurate description of a maple syrup producer, don't let it scare you! The method of producing maple syrup is one of the things in our society that has endured even in today's culture of constant change; fundamentally it's the same process Native Americans used centuries ago. This class will explore the history of maple syrup production, discover the ins and outs of making syrup, create (and eat) some sweet confections, and take field trips to local producers, restaurants and festivals. No prior experience expected.
Hmmm Interesting that this is an Honors class. This is also in New York state, the East coast... where the maple syrup comes from. It states that this is the same process that Native Americans used to use. So, what do we have? Botany, Dietary Anthropology and Outdoor Adventure. Plus, you know if you are at all zealous about your foods (wine, cheese, beer, bread) you would love this class... Academic power and enjoyable subject matter, woot!
- At Frostburg State University in Maryland, you can take a class called The Science of "Harry Potter".
- Fans of the phenomenally popular children’s book character, Harry Potter, turned to Frostburg State University this year when University offered the honors seminar “The Science of Harry Potter.” The course, which examines the magical events in J.K. Rowling’s books and explains them through the basic principles of physics, received international attention after an Associated Press writer picked up the story. From there, reports of the FSU class appeared in newspapers and magazines across the nation and throughout Europe, Australia, Indonesia and China. Harry Potter fansites on the Web posted announcements about FSU. Even the 24-hour news stations, such as CNN, FoxNews and MSNBC, ran information of the unusual class on their bottom-of-the-screen news crawls.
Media outlets, including the BBC, Radio Europe and morning radio shows, hounded FSU Physics Professor George Plitnik, the mastermind behind the Potter course. He even received international e-mails Potter fans who wanted to take the class (including a woman in Romania!)
The highlight of the coverage was a visit from CBS News Correspondent Tracy Smith, who taped a story for “The Early Show.” When the three-minute segment aired on Oct. 3, FSU alumni called to say they saw their alma mater on the air. Later, that same CBS piece was broadcast on other stations, including MTV. The global attention was truly, dare we say, “magical.” An honors class again? Well when you are this deep in engineering and physics it is no wonder. - http://www.isr.umd.edu/news/news_story.php?id=2545
This link is to a news story about a different class. Not the course description. It appears that Frostburg isn't they only school interested in what physical mechanics it would take to actually make something "magical" function in a real life setting.
- At Centre College in Kentucky, you can take a class called The Art of Walking.
The article is too long to post here... but! I am happy to be wrong about this class. I thought it would really teach you the proper way to walk like in Zen or the proper way to breathe, as in Yoga. But it is not a physical eduction class, it is a philosophy class. (not that those other two aren't philosophies) And, not even an Eastern philosophy class. We are talkin' Kant here. Hilarious! Are we still opposed to taking course offerings seriously?
- And at Reed College in Oregon, you can take a class called Underwater Basket Weaving.
- COMPETITIVE Underwater Basket Weaving (Alice Neels) 2:00pm, pool Bring a partner, or find one there. Basket making supplies provided. Prizes will be awarded to the winner(s).
I'm sorry, I'm sorry... COMPETITIVE!!! COMPETITIVE? Not only is this course serious, it is so serious that there are prizes. Actually, let me correct myself THIS ISN'T A COURSE AND THEREFORE DOESN'T BELONG ON THIS LIST. Dummies. This is course takes place in January, it is like an intersession course or activity. Look at it this way. You have to weave a basket -- difficult -- under water -- harder -- NOW DO IT FASTER AND BETTER THAN ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS.
Enough said.
