No wunder ours kidz is stoopid II. These are REAL college courses.

There are many reasons to rightfully rip on our current post-secondary educational system (pretty much all of them start and end with the outrageous state of modern tuition fees).

This however, is not one of them, and is just a ridiculous attempt to drum up some partisan anti-intellectualism. (see post before mine for proof)

Pretty much every college/university program has classes like these - where I'm from we called em "bird courses". But that doesn't mean they in any way represent the overall curriculum.

I did a double major in Math & Physics for my undergrad and during that time took several courses like "Life on Other Planets" and "History of Popular Music in North America".

They're called electives for a reason, and as such nobody is forcing you to take them (there are plenty of more serious electives as well). But usually these classes are the most popular ones for a good reason: when you have a schedule full of exciting stuff like "Statistical Thermodynamics" and "Partial Differential Equations" it's nice to have something in there to take the edge off as well (doesn't hurt the ole GPA either)

Often courses like these are also taught by some of the best and most off-the-wall professors who challenge you and teach you how to look at things from completely different perspectives, which is overall pretty much the whole point of any undergrad university program, even the fluffy ones - i.e. to simply develop better critical thinking skills.


So to try and chastise and denounce all of higher learning over something like this is about as silly and superficial as the titles of these courses.

reply to post by FortAnthem


I beg to differ.

With the exception of some of those classes (1, 18, 19 20, possibly some others), most of those courses I find to actually be academically engaging, if designed and taught like I imagine.

I'll only touch on a few, but here goes:

3. "GaGa for Gaga: Sex, Gender, and Identity" : While the issue at first might be because it has to do with Lady Gaga, the point of the course appears to be the latter: sex gender and identity. By using a pop icon with which many kids are familiar (and possibly like), the instructor can more easily see that the students identify with their own identity and gender struggles. They might also bring in historical issues of gender identity and struggle, and all this is tied into the current lady gaga and the identity crises or issues that people latently possess.

4. Same as above, in some respects. A sociological look at fame and its implications, possibly even how it can distort gender lines even more.

5. To get some students to understand difficult concept it is sometimes necessary to use examples of things they know and things that interest them. I am reminded of the film Dangerous Minds, and how Pfeiffer used the student's own contemporary (rap) music/lyrics to teach them about poetry and other literature, that they previously hated. By teaching the "philosophy of star trek," the students will be able to learn philosophical principles in an engaging and interesting way.

6. This could also be a way for students to learn about the linguistics of their own language, when they study the linguistics of a language in a show they like. Linguistics is hard enough as it is, so making it interesting is key, and builds concepts and is applicable to their own language.

11. Definitely interesting. Since Christianity is by and large a male centric religion, offering a contemporary perspective can help entice thinking and broaden the students' overall perspective of an archaic theme.

I could add several more to this list.

If one is familiar with how many college courses are designed, one can see that these particular courses are not at all pointless or wasteful. I have taken courses that would, on first glance, seem to be just as wasteful, but they turned out to be a wealth of information that build on an array of other principles and materials. This is why I argue the way I do regarding some of them.

And as others have said, they are elective classes.

reply to post by FortAnthem
I think I'll sign my daughters up for number 6:

"Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond" (The University Of Texas)

The next time their boss yells at them in Albanian they can yell back at him in a language HE doesn't understand!

Originally posted by littled16
reply to post by FortAnthem

 

I think I'll sign my daughters up for number 6:

"Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond" (The University Of Texas)

The next time their boss yells at them in Albanian they can yell back at him in a language HE doesn't understand!

CH'o'Tok du pe Took!

What does it mean? I have no idea, but my dawg liked it.

But it does make me feel better everytime I scream it at the top of my lungs.

I used it on my Soldiers a couple of times when they pissed me off. They'd look at me like I had lost my mind and said, "What?"

My reply was always, "exactly", and I would walk away. It worked every time.

Originally posted by TDawgRex

18. "Sport For The Spectator" (The Ohio State University)

(And if you're from Cleveland, walking out of the bar with your head down.)

Ain't that the truth. Especially the Browns! Josh Gordon is suspended for the first 2 games of the season for violating the leagues substance abuse policy.

I digress, I mean these aren't the only stupid classes to chose from. All universities have these classes that don't mean anything and are a waste and time and money. You know the orientation classes, and other obligatory classes that make no sense.

One I remember in particular, which was required to graduate at my university, but not any more was Turning Points and Connections. I fell asleep in every class, and don't remember a thing except the basic premise was to teach us the change from a qualitative to a quantitative perception of value and worth...

Who cares?!?!? I've never used any of that stuff in the real world, or my career. What a waste!!!

Some of those courses seem perfectly valid to me, as elective classes. As for intelligence, I'm guessing some of you aren't familiar with the idea of not judging a book by its cover. While the names of some of these courses appear to be created in good humour, I'm sure that there's something valuable to be learned in lesson.

What some people - usually stupid people who've never even been to university - don't understand is that you're, to a large degree, learning to learn. You're developing and fine-tuning thinking skills which will help tremendously in life, and career more specifically. You don't necessary need a serious, conservative subject to hone these skills. You can, and apparently some people do, hone their skills inspecting outrageous, comical subjects.

I would bet as a matter of fact that the average person who's completed one of the courses listed by the OP would be able to demonstrate a much higher level of intelligence and reasoning than the people on here who are ridiculing the courses and the stupidity of people taking them. I'd put everything I owned on it, and I mean that honestly.

Some of you guys are ridiculous, well and truly.

These are laughable, but you know whats even more laughable than that list? Is when all the classes you went to were said high degree technical classes, and THEN you still don't land a job after graduation. Truth is, if I knew how college would have turned out for me, I would have taken more classes like those, that way college would have been fun and easy for me, not years of stress and nightless sleeps studying. I am an architecture graduate by the way.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Silly me.. I'm taking electives like Advanced Spreadsheet design and Introduction to Print Journalism where I can squeeze them in. I love my electives for being able to just explore various directions and learn what is really interesting and useful. Ummm... A course on Klingon and other made-up languages? A semester, credit giving COURSE on it? W

W...... It's not just some students who need to get out more and get a life, obviously.

The Klingon course would probably be an appealing and worthy course for students studying linguistics. I'd say it's just as valid as an elective on spreadsheet design, advanced or otherwise. I'd even be tempted to stick my neck out and say that as a course, credibility wise, it trumps advanced spreadsheet design quite easily.

Linguistics is a pretty serious subject.

reply to post by GrandStrategy

I'd even be tempted to stick my neck out and say that as a course, credibility wise, it trumps advanced spreadsheet design quite easily.

That's sticking your head out pretty far when you have no earthly idea what I am pursuing for a degree path. Isn't it? If I'm trying to become a Master Basket Weaver, then I suppose you're right. Abstract thinking to a colorful extreme may be helpful. If I'm pursuing ancient languages and linguistic related specialties ...Yup. Might be helpful, in an odd and out of the box kinda way ...depends on how that abstract a title pans out for the course in person.

If I'm pursuing something where office work and data correlation and display might be a core part of things? I'd say knowing more about Klingon than what they're speaking on a Star Trek episode is totally without value.

I wonder how the kids who take some of those courses (and not all are bad) will feel about them when looking back on financial aid statements to see the totals and realize after 10-15 years of paying debt ....just how much the Klingon course came out to cost? No matter....it's all just part of the tab. ugh....

Zombies in popular media?

There's a zombie course?!

Dude! I'd be awesome at that can you get a BS degree in zombies?

I've always felt that if anyone deserved a BS degree it was me, I'm full of it...

Dont entirely agree on the topic. Names and brief descriptions of classes are hardly enough to measure any of them. How do you know what approach, what they teach and how deep they go from that? And few that I disagree from the description alone:

5. "Philosophy And Star Trek" (Georgetown)

Star Trek is deep in this if you put your brain into it. There's philosophical points everywhere.

6. "Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond" (The University Of Texas)

Anyone interested in linguistics should take their time to investigate the various made up languages in the world. Such as esperanto. This is not a course to learn klingon as per the description.

17. "Cyberporn And Society" (State University of New York at Buffalo)

Cyberporn is huge. There's nothing wrong in studying it.

reply to post by shockedamerican


Yes...agreed harry potter is as real as batman....but ...now take a chair.....batman's dead, man

Batman's dead..., man.!!

If you take the time to look up the course descriptions, these are valid courses with crazy names to get peoples attention.

reply to post by FortAnthem


Yeah a lot of the courses look fairly damn stupid but as mentioned by other posters already, a few of them seem like they could be ok. For me I think "Learning From YouTube" isn't really a stupid as it sounds, I've learn a great deal from YouTube, there are full university lectures on YouTube and a lot of good tutorials which are often extremely high quality. Saying you can't learn from YouTube is like saying you can't really learn anything from Wikipedia because everyone can participate in creating it. The fact is the internet puts a vast amount of information at our fingertips and education can now be a completely virtual experience. If you want to learn something I guarantee you can learn it some where on the internet right now free of charge.

reply to post by FortAnthem


We need to tax income producing americans more in order to support this and to support teaching the IRS how to dance.

whats more important to talk about is what our kids are still being taught in high school is a little bit more ridiculous than this

With the exception of a very limited few fields I personally believe that college is a big waste of time and money. Medical fields and the sciences are a few that I feel are truly required to have a college degree and there are a few more where the specialized education is needed.

Law is one that I personally feel should not require a degree to work in, and in many states it was not required until about 10-20 years ago. Prior to then you could basically do an internship by working for 5 years under a practicing attorney with "x" amount of years in the profession and it would satisfy the requirement. I believe this was called a "law reader' or something to that effect. The reason I feel this way about law is because of the huge influence of the ABA in law schools and the same goes for many other degrees.

The problem with many of the Liberal Arts degrees is that many of the colleges and such spend much more time on indoctrination of their views than they do actually educating on real world curriculum. I also believe that much of the requirement for degrees goes hand in hand with the educational institutions making more money as well as the government making more money by licensing and regulation of degree profressions.

That's just my opinion and you know what they say about those.

As my dad used to say, "The best definition of PHD is Piled High and Deep".

ifn ewe dont lern how to reed at home you won't never lern how too reed
4tunately reeding is nots a rewiremint to gradu8 underwater basket weeving or foe soing a$$ holes on teddy bares


tho it is an improvement over when we paid our 2ition fees to the church an wee! lerned that the werld was flat

I could imagine a graduate of one of these courses going for a job interview.

"Well sir, I never participated in sports in high school, but I know Quidditch like the back of my hand."

I'm not saying that these courses aren't valid, it's just that time would be better spent on doing a short course on small motor repair, Occupational health and safety, first aid, etc. These would look better on a resume, instead of being qualified in how to tie a half windsor.

Who you callin' a kid?

The average age of students at some of the upper echelon schools is upper 20s nowadays. Young, yes. But, kids?

Education isn't strictly about your undergrad degree! Some classes are "out there" but they do offer a subject that attracts students and makes them think outside the box.

I like to think that those students are well rounded