Posted on 06/08/2013 8:48:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I compare these to what I actually *took* in first year.
Physics 120-121 6 credits.
Required course. Honours applied Physics. No longer offered, but it used to be provided.
Chemistry 120-121 6 credits
Science Elective. Honours Chemistry. No longer offered.
Mathematics 120-121 6 credits
Required course. Calculus I and II, Differentiation and Integration.
Astronomy 101-102 6 credits
Science Elective. Survey course in Astronomy. Not a prerequisite for anything and no prerequisites required.
History + Philosophy of Science HIST 184/PHI 130 6 credits.
Elective. Joint course offered by History Dean and a philosophy professor. We covered important books in the history of science, some of them rather obscure.
Reading lists:
Marquis de Condorcet, Darwin, Copernicus, Galileo, Francis + Roger Bacon. Descartes.
If you haven’t read it already, read, “the New Atlantis”.
Which course of study do you prefer?
I met Gary Larson at a book signing years ago. I think he would chuckle over the insect course. A louse, beetle and butterfly carry his name in scientific notation according to wiki.
The only one on your list I have NOT read is the Marquis.
Interesting words, would you not agree?
Especially since I am the definition of blue collar. I have twice now declined office work for significantly better pay.
If #20 included “how to program a VCR,” then I would enroll!
When I was in college, there was a 300-level course for senior English majors on three books: Mann’s Magic Mountain, Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, and Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. The prerequisites were the necessary lower-level courses and German and French.
The idea of a course in Lady Gaga doesn’t really give me the old thrill of admiration I had for those seniors. Nice try, though.
I was able to convince the dean to skip first year english for that history/philosophy course. It was offered later as a third year course. Which is probably what it should have been in the first place, but it was a great course.
We were assigned Condorcet’s ‘historical progress of the human mind’. Descartes was his ‘discourse on the method’. Both which I found immensely helpful later on.
I can see possible value in 13 and 20. The Far Side is an obvious hook to draw students in to studying bugs. Sort of comic relief for the serious study this cherry is laid on. I.E. studying BUGS does have its uses, for forensics and all sorts of scientific applications.
As for 20 if it’s taught correctly, it could well alert students to how the media can be use for propaganda and that what is NOT said is as important as what is not said.
“Zombies In Popular Media” must be a biographical review of the life of Chris Matthews.
“yes....I am majoring in Tupac Shakur Literature....with a minor in Bullet Hole Forensics”. /s
Craziest college course I had was Basketball Officiating....and that was to satisfy any phys ed requirement some potential 4yr schools had
There is an education opportunity here. I recent;y read that a trade school in CA offered a software engineering program that was 9 weeks long and cost $11K. It only taught the technical courses of a software engineering degree.
Imagine if schools around the nation offered these kinds of programs in mechanical, electronics, optics, computer science, chemistry, physics, etc. In 9 weeks you get an equivalent of a BS degree. A motivated individual could get multiple discipline certifications at the engineering level in less than 1 year and for less money than just a freshman year at many colleges.
As a side benefit of getting a very quick technical education, it would remove the opportunity for liberal indoctrination.
One more benefit. If you are older and stuck in a dead end career, you would be able to change all of that with $11K and 9 weeks of your time. That sure beat the alternative of 4 years of college, massive debt and maybe missing the window of opportunity on good jobs.
“If #20 included “how to program a VCR,” then I would enroll!”
VCR...probably have to take an archaeology class for that one.....
I took Intro to Fencing as an extra PE in college. Not exactly useful in the age of gunpowder, but I wanted to learn about it, and it proved to be my only opportunity to do so. Most of these classes look like some sort of freshman elective- I doubt very seriously they were required for a major, and at most might qualify for meeting some requirement. If one has a beef with what gets taught at colleges, one should take a look at useless majors or degrees- usually something like “African-American Studies” or “Women’s Studies” which have no academic value and no practical value either.
Those are electives that serious students take, engineering, math science, pre - med. Those are the only classes where the nerds can mingle with the hot communications majors, so they serve an important purpose.
The world is divided between those who understand that "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" is a serious question, and those who don't. Once upon a time it was theology and philosophy, and now it is physics, that reaches for deliberately silly constructions in an attempt to visualize an abstraction that challenges most people's powers of analysis.
Universities traditionally took as their goal the pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful. These were assumed to be complementary if properly understood, just as all subjects were thought to be converging approaches to the same Truth. Interdisciplinary studies were meant not just to produce "well-rounded" graduates; the insights of one discipline should inform, sometimes confirm, and sometimes challenge other disciplines. Hyper-specialization tends to make this a remote prospect in many fields today, but the underlying principle is sound.
Opposed to all this is the modern cult of relativism and subjectivity, with the emergence of programs of study focused on neurotic self-absorption and the cultivation of differences. The traditional concept stressed universals and objective truth, while the modernists seem to have given up on that project. Students today are being cheated.
Agree with your post 100%
I went to a two-year nursing program for the same reason. When I finished, I worked as an RN while finishing my bachelor’s degree. The BSN classes were mostly irrelevant BS....hoops I had to jump thru to get a piece of paper that would allow me to move on to grad school. They had absolutely zero impact on patient care or my practice as a nurse.
...and upset the left's academia assembly line of fresh robots? Don't count on it.
I teach a Harry Potter literature class as an elective and I’ve been asked to teach it at our community college. We delve into the Nazi allegory, the role of alchemy, Biblical influence, mythology, etc. It’s my favorite class, and a favorite of my students as well. Some kids even take it a second time knowing that they will not receive credit for round two!
Because they knew it was eventually THEIR money on the line, they didn't waste time on silly courses. They got what they needed for basic courses, and what they wanted for their majors, and limited their debts as much as possible.
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