7 Responses to Life Imitates Bias Incident: The World’s Most Politically Incorrect Novel
nerdygirl says:
December 10, 2011 at 6:59 am
Personally, I’ve found Lady Gaga’s act to be a deconstruction of fame and modern cultures taste obsession with celebrities, esp. the famous for being famous types. So, courses on her might not be as shallow as you think.
That still sounds pretty darn shallow. Frankly, college programs on anything other than Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are all becoming sort of a waste these days.
Enh. You still need “soft” courses. Just because you can’t see the value in language based courses doesn’t mean their invalid.
Besides, courses like this are called “electives” as in, a student “elects” to take this extra course. Electives are usually not as serious as courses related to a major.
Not at the price at which they’re selling credits you don’t. Why not an elective in something like Renaissance Art or something similarly serious, but not as serious as say, Linear Algebra). i.e. have the students do real thinking instead of “clap for an A.”
Enh, It really depends on the professor though, I had an Art Nouveau course that pretty terrible, but had an Oscar Wilde course that did a lot of contemporary comparisons and parallels (as opposed to say, strict adherence to just his works and the context of his time) that was pretty awesome. Another popular course was Superheroes, which analyzed the parallels between Batman, Superman, etc and classic lit, like Beowulf. Just because a course may focus on something contemporary and “shallow” doesn’t mean the course it’s self is.
1) There is a big incentive to get good grades in college. One way to do so is to take joke courses.
2) There is a corresponding incentive not to take hard courses. I feel bad I didn’t take more math in college. I should have. I didn’t want to risk my GPA. I kick myself for this.
So, now I make up the difference at http://www.khanacademy.org and with DVDs from the Great Courses. I eagerly await the day when colleges lose considerable market share to these venues.
Personally, I’ve found Lady Gaga’s act to be a deconstruction of fame and modern cultures taste obsession with celebrities, esp. the famous for being famous types. So, courses on her might not be as shallow as you think.
That still sounds pretty darn shallow. Frankly, college programs on anything other than Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are all becoming sort of a waste these days.
Enh. You still need “soft” courses. Just because you can’t see the value in language based courses doesn’t mean their invalid.
Besides, courses like this are called “electives” as in, a student “elects” to take this extra course. Electives are usually not as serious as courses related to a major.
Not at the price at which they’re selling credits you don’t. Why not an elective in something like Renaissance Art or something similarly serious, but not as serious as say, Linear Algebra). i.e. have the students do real thinking instead of “clap for an A.”
Enh, It really depends on the professor though, I had an Art Nouveau course that pretty terrible, but had an Oscar Wilde course that did a lot of contemporary comparisons and parallels (as opposed to say, strict adherence to just his works and the context of his time) that was pretty awesome. Another popular course was Superheroes, which analyzed the parallels between Batman, Superman, etc and classic lit, like Beowulf. Just because a course may focus on something contemporary and “shallow” doesn’t mean the course it’s self is.
Well, you can take whatever courses you want.
But I note two things:
1) There is a big incentive to get good grades in college. One way to do so is to take joke courses.
2) There is a corresponding incentive not to take hard courses. I feel bad I didn’t take more math in college. I should have. I didn’t want to risk my GPA. I kick myself for this.
So, now I make up the difference at http://www.khanacademy.org and with DVDs from the Great Courses. I eagerly await the day when colleges lose considerable market share to these venues.
And I feel bad I didn’t take more courses outside my major. Such is life.