Caffeinated Edumacation.
Are you old enough to have received tuition bills for your kid’s education that roll your eyes to the back of your cruller? I am, and I have. I recall getting bills from daughter’s college (a small fancy schmancy college that serves Designer Water) for about a zillion dollars per credit for a course that was called something like “The Medium of Movement.†Huh???
As such, I pity the parents of a kid at Centre College of Kentucky who get their next tuition bill for a zillion dollars so that their freshman kid can take a course called “The Café and Public Life, ” which is described as follows:
The café has long been a storied place for creating public life, from convivial social groups to intellectual salons to revolutionary cells. We will study how the café is a “third place†– not home, not work – where people from different social groups can meet and mix. Caffeine, especially in coffee, tea, and chocolate, has fueled a modern public sphere that promotes hard work and clear thinking. We will make several field trips to different kinds of cafés to see for ourselves how they can be incubators of public life, and to actively create critical discourse ourselves by talking to café regulars.
When I was a freshman in college, my courses were as follows:
English Composition
Biology
Advanced German
Psychology
History of Western Civilization
There may have been one more that I cannot recall at the moment. I do, however, remember that those courses kept my ass glued to a desk chair for five hours per night after the last class of the day. Taking a course that involved hanging out in a coffee joint was not an option.
Would I have signed up for a course that involved sitting around, drinking coffee and grooving on the ambience? You bet your ass. Would I have learned anything worth a shit? As my Constitutional Law Professor from Maine used to say, “To ahhhsk the question, is to ahhhnswer it.†NO!!!!
Mr. Scriblerus, of The Idiom, has tracked down the details of this edumacational joke, and Black Hole of tuition dollars, including the most interesting course syllabus. Go check it out.
So, this is what I have look forward to?
Holy Crap!
Comment by Christina — February 28, 2005 @ 8:35 pm
You have got to be kidding me. That’s even dumber than the multi-cultural diversity B.S. class they teach at our community college.
Comment by rita — February 28, 2005 @ 8:51 pm
No wonder we’re looking to be a third-world country.
I sure hope that the next time I’m in a coffeehouse…I mean an “incubator of public life”…that I don’t get bothered by students trying to “actively create critical discourse”. I just want my cuppa, my bearclaw and my high-speed wireless.
Comment by zonker — February 28, 2005 @ 9:52 pm
The times… they are a changin’. Excellent! I would have loved that class, but like you, I got to take physics and econ. Oh well… maybe in my next life I’ll be able to go learn at the Cafe.
Comment by Dash — February 28, 2005 @ 10:53 pm
That is too funny, given what I wrote today about caffeine’s affect on me this morning. Can’t do it. But I did take a class in college that was something like “Influence of the 60’s Music on Politics of the Era.” Bizarre. How Sargeant Pepper influenced the Cold War and all that.
Comment by Shamrock — February 28, 2005 @ 10:54 pm
It’s a short drop from designer water to designer courses.
Comment by Sluggo — February 28, 2005 @ 11:57 pm
Oh yes, my daughter this term is taking “how to use a laptop”,,,,good gawd, this kid has been using a computer since she was 12!!
Comment by Michele — March 1, 2005 @ 6:30 am
Damn, I wish I had a dad like you, Jim…my father said “Get your own freakin student loans. You’re an adult.”
My dad, the sentimentalist;-)
Comment by sadie — March 1, 2005 @ 6:36 am
Michele, I had to take an “Intro to Computers” class which taught students how to use MSWord. Why? Because like any good lawyer, I only used WordPerfect. And I had to take an “Intro to Windows” class as well. Easy A’s, but a big waste of time & money.
Sadie, I like your dad. I told my kids the same thing. Character building, it was.
Comment by rita — March 1, 2005 @ 7:53 am
And “they” say that the problem with the education system is that it doesn’t get enough money.
Comment by Craig — March 1, 2005 @ 8:02 am
We split the cost of five years at Drexel for our daughter with her. It’s paying off, though, she’s currently doing marine water quality research in Puerto Rico as part of her Master’s degree, while we sit here and write student loan payment checks out with frozen fingers…
oh, well.
Comment by gregor — March 1, 2005 @ 12:26 pm
God forbid my professor ever Googles the name of her class!
We had to roll around and do drills of “Slash” “Dab” “Flick.” (To this day, I do one fine dab.)
Yep. Required for my double major in Drama.
Due to my lack of coordination, it was the hardest “B-” I ever earned.
Comment by TJ — March 1, 2005 @ 1:07 pm