Posted on 03/24/2014 8:21:02 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
Even National Public Radio (NPR) occasionally realizes that some college courses are straight from la-la land.
A recent report from the Protojournalist mentions an unusual offering in the area of Mythology and Folklore at Harvard called Maledicta, which is described as “an academic exploration of ritualized verbal abuse,” according to a report in the Protojournalist.
Students taking this class apparently examine “international traditions of vituperation and cursing in their folkloristic, historical and sociological settings.” Not only that, “they learn about practices including Turkish verbal duels, Scottish flyting and African-American “dozens.”
Rutgers University also proves it is no slouch in the arena of the unusual, by offering a course in the Women’s and Gender Studies department called “Politicizing Beyonce.” Lecturer Ken Allred says he created the course because he believes that Beyonce is not only attempting to create a grand narrative around her persona,” but she is also an “agent of social change.”
And what about “The History of Surfing,” offered by the University of North Carolina, Wilmington? History Department chairman Paul Townend defends the academic worthiness of the course, saying that “there are very rich themes: the non-Western history of surfing as a practice, the transmittal of the practice to America and the West, the connections to American counterculture, the commodification of surfing over time.”
In conclusion, Townend says the course is “a gateway for getting students to see how historians think, study about culture, cultural interactions and exchanges, and change over time. They get a good exposure to a range of different sources — oral histories, films, and objects as well as more traditional written sources.”
Malarkey salesmen, all of them.
Strip the taxpayer funding out of college education will teach what needs to be taught and not be overburdened with crap.
Even better, the best and brightest students can learn on the cutting edge without having to slog through a cesspool of students who don’t belong there.
“And what about “The History of Surfing,””?
Imagine the Final Exam
Who is credited with having invented the term “Hang Ten”
Who was the first Ho Daddy?
Why so few Afro-American Surfers?
Bite me. /s
I went researching about a year for requirements of a degree in the 1880-era. So I came to a three-star college that listed their one and only degree (yeah, just one). It went through the forty-odd classes (Latin, speech, rhetoric, basic geometry, composition, Roman history, Greek philosophy, and basic civil engineering).
The end result was your appearance in front of a committee at the end of four years and you’d answer some fairly difficult questions to show you had gained some vast amount of common knowledge.
The cost? That part I could never get around to. I doubt if a guy paid more than $500 a year for the various classes taught. His food and board probably amount to a thousand dollars.
That would include ending the tax-exempt status of private schools' massive endowments (e.g. Princeton has an endowment of $18.2 billion, on which they earned 11.7% in FY 2013).
Better yet, have college transcript be public record, so that students know that their future employers will see just what sort of courses they took.
“Strip the taxpayer funding out of college education will teach what needs to be taught and not be overburdened with crap.”
My engineering degree required (as I recall) 15 hours of “non-technical, culturally related” classes. I wanted to substitute biology labs. The engineering dean told me, “I’m sorry. The college requires that you take courses that have no use whatsoever. It’s sort of a tax on engineering students so the other colleges get their money out of your time here. That’s why it’s a hard requirement. No engineering student would otherwise step foot in those buildings”
These courses sound wonderful...but for what kind of a job
will these intellectuals be able to preform?
Just about any subject can be studied academically. The point is to teach logical analysis and persuasive writing.
I will however share with you the lamentable fact that very few of the West African Sapphic Poets are surfers, even when compared with the shockingly low number of surfers of color in this country. This is due to racism (and perhaps the large number of sharks in West African waters). With your endorsement, I hope to receive a large Obamagrant to set this tragic situation aright.
ahahahaha Oprah Meets Flipper
There is a long list of corporate CEOs who were English and history majors.
Francophone Literature: From Negritude to Realism”
Negritude? this is my first exposure...to the :word!
Shouldn’t that be African-American-Itude?
One of those courses taken by a good fly tier, who is able to learn, could lead to an excellent part time job or full time job.
That course is the Scottish Fly Tying Course.
The Scots have the river Spey in their great country. They have created a special breed of fly fishing called Spey Fly Fishing. They have very long two handed rods called Spey Rods, special Spey lines and of course Spey Flies. A good Spey rod can cost $1,000 and the reels can be from half that cost to more than the rod.
Some fly line companies basically specialize in Spey Lines which cost a nice sum.
The best fly to use is the Spey Fly or the Scottish Fly. A fairly good Spey Fly can be bought some where 6-7 $’s. The good and beautiful/ articulated Spey flies go from about $10 per Spey fly to around $30/Spey Fly.
Below is a link to one of these flies on EBAY.
The University of Michigan used to have a class on the circus taught by a professor obsessed with the circus. When I was at Michigan State they had classes on wine tasting and flower arranging.
Oprah Mates Orca lol
“The cost? That part I could never get around to. I doubt if a guy paid more than $500 a year for the various classes taught. His food and board probably amount to a thousand dollars.”
$1,000 in 1880 would be a bunch. You could buy a nice sized farm for that.
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