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Author : Sage Romano
Principles of Organic and Biochemistry? Yawn! English
Literature 101? An outdated snooze-fest! Differential Equations? That one is
just begging to be skipped! Now that college students have the option to take
classes on everything from zombies to garbage, gone are the days of choosing
between Art History 1 and Art History 2 to round out a schedule. If society’s
next great thinkers don’t have extensive knowledge of the literary canon, it
might be because they were busy learning what soap operas say about gender
roles. Here are some of the wackiest college courses - a few of which have us
hankering to go back to school.
Once the fictional name given to college classes that required minimal
participation in exchange for credits, Underwater Basket Weaving is now an
actual class offered at University of California, San Diego,
as well as at Rutgers. It stands to reason
that this recreational class, in which students submerge grasses or wicker in
water and then braid it together into baskets, is meant to get students to
relax after they’ve spent a long week actually going to college.
Philosophy and Star Trek
“Star Trek is very philosophical.” This is the matter-of-fact statement that
leads the course description of PHIL-180, Philosophy and Star Trek, at Georgetown University. The undergraduate course is
advertised as an introduction to basic philosophical tenets surrounding
metaphysics and epistemology, and Star Trek is the context for grappling with
the existential imponderables that arise. In other words, without Star Trek,
you’re never going to get a bunch of hungover freshmen to show up and care about
Kierkegaard.
The Joy of Garbage
It might serve our society well if this course, offered at Santa Clara University,
was required around the country rather than simply being a whimsically named
elective at one California
school. Instructor Virginia Matzek does not let her students shy away from what
she calls “the yuck factor,” taking them to sewage treatment centers and
landfills and any other place that deals with the business end of what we throw
away. In this age of countless environmental controversies and problems, the
more people who know about the way our waste is processed, the better off we
all might be.
Daytime Serials: Family & Social Roles
This course is offered in the Women’s Studies program at the University of Wisconsin.
It compares daytime programming with prime-time dramas in order to examine the
way themes of gender are portrayed and how those portrayals affect women and
men in our culture. It’s fair to suspect that despite the subject, this class
has more than Soap Opera Digest on the syllabus. If you think soap operas are
just about amnesia, twisted love affairs between long-lost fraternal twins, and
made-up medical procedures that frequently resurrect “dead” characters, think
again. Daytime television actually serves as insight into gender roles.
Zombies in Popular Media
Zombies are the new vampires, you know. Columbia
College in Chicago is capitalizing on the zombie’s
rising star power with this course that examines the undead’s history and
importance in fantasy and horror texts. But don’t think you’re getting off easy
with this one. The course description advertises an “intense schedule” of
critical theory and source media. For the record, “source media” includes
movies and comic books.
Myth & Science Fiction: Star Wars, The Matrix, and Lord
of the Rings
Almost everyone knows that these wildly popular epic trilogies are all based on
mythologies that have been around since the dawn of time. At Centre College
in Danville, Kentucky, instructor Lee Patterson leads a
workshop that explores classic epic storytelling using these contemporary
examples instead of restricting himself to Virgil or Homer like some professors
might. This is all a long way of saying, “Dorks of the world, come on out of
your mom’s basement - it’s the college class you’ve been waiting for!”
Maple Syrup: The Real Thing
This educational gem is offered as part of the honors program at Alfred
University in New York, the same institution that brought you such courses as
Purity and Porn in America, Hannibal Lecter’s Book Club, and Tightwaddery:
Living the Good Life on a Dollar a Day, among other highly entertaining class
options. The course description is pithily introduced as a job listing:
“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.” It then goes on to invite
students to experience the joys of learning the process of syrup-making and its
storied history. Interesting? Perhaps. Honors program worthy? That’s debatable.
~Blog Admin~
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