Higher Education

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

U. Penn's new curriculum for English.

 

Well, why not study the current idiocy?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

That is absolutely hilarious! I am so glad I am not going to that college and I am not going into that major nor that tract.

Then again, I am going to the biggest party college in my state so maybe I should not talk... However, I will be majoring in Chemical Engineering for undergraduate (and possibly food science, biochemistry, or something to do with polymers for graduate school).

For those who do not want to click the link, the course requires the students to stare at screens for at least 3 hours a day and only communicate via the internet (and no face-time or skype either) during those 3 hours. The aim of the professor is to make autobiographies from facebook as well as poems and novellas from twitter feeds.

--Ocram

[jmsepe 2,038]

Well that's quite funny. There are many absurd changes in the educational system right now like in our new curriculum though, Fillipino, our national language will no longer be taught in college. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ what is the language of instruction?

[Mr Saturn64 742]

*sigh*....  What a waste.  At least it shows the accurate future of civilization.

 

Also, why ya gotta be in Philly, man?  Go be stupid somewhere else.

[Compdude787 916]

That class is pretty pointless. I'm pretty sure that 100% of college students know how to waste time on the Internet; I'm doing it right now. You don't need a class to teach you something you already know how to do!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Just imagine getting a degree credit for that class?  What ever happened to Butterfly Mounting and Basket Weaving?

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Maybe there's hope after all for Schulmania's proposed class in Feline Studies....

[Easy Bakes 253]

Classes for athletes, nothing more to see here

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Classes for athletes, nothing more to see here

 

USC, Ohio State (ahem, I mean THE Ohio State University), any SEC school, yeah, I'd believe that, but dude.  Penn?  Penn??

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Every faculty has its crazies and they can be deadly if they have tenure.

 

One of my dogs got a certificate from a local college in Dogs 101.  It was an obedience training course.  An Irish Setter, he came second in the basic obedience class because he broke in the long down.  Otherwise Casey was a pretty smart setter. 

 

Of course the course really trained my wife and myself on how to train a dog in basic obedience.

[Easy Bakes 253]

 

Classes for athletes, nothing more to see here

 

USC, Ohio State (ahem, I mean THE Ohio State University), any SEC school, yeah, I'd believe that, but dude.  Penn?  Penn??

 

they all do it.

Today's Scholarship athletes are led by the nose thru their academic enrollments  by members of the athletic dept. told exactly what classes to sign up for an what majors to choose.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Athletes on scholarships should have to maintain a 3.8 average or be dropped from the team.

[jmsepe 2,038]

^ what is the language of instruction?

 

English. Filipino doesn't seem to exist as a subject and language in Filipino educational institutions nowadays.

 

Oh the irony. 

[Easy Bakes 253]

Athletes on scholarships should have to maintain a 3.8 average or be dropped from the team.

thats how they maintain their GPA's thay are given cake walk classes that a 5 year old could pass, some of them do not even require any attendance in a regular class room.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/sports/university-of-north-carolina-investigation-reveals-shadow-curriculum-to-help-athletes.html?_r=0

 

if  it was this rampant at this school you can be sure it going on at  a lot more schools

[Mr Saturn64 742]

And may I remind you, Penn?  The same university that is:

1. In the Ivy League

2. Is going through a massive building boom

3. Gentrified West Philadelphia almost completely

4. Formed the prestigious University City (Alongside Drexel)

5. Is building a 750-foot skyscraper.

6. Has strong ties with the Episcopal Diocese of Philadelphia

7. Within spitting distance of famed 30th Street Station

and 8. Boasts an archeology museum, with ancient Egyptian artwork? 

 

To take these major accomplishments and then add something as stupid as this to curriculum seems nothing more than a way to cater to short attention spans.  Drexel should never have to live in Penn's shadow anymore.  To be fair, people do struggle (*coughathletescough*) with grades, but if you got into Penn, you are a good enough student to maintain your grades, despite new challenges.  This seems to be made for the college equivalent of senioritis students.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

 

^ what is the language of instruction?

 

English. Filipino doesn't seem to exist as a subject and language in Filipino educational institutions nowadays.

 

Oh the irony. 

 

I understand this fully.  Many of our native peoples are losing their languages because they are no longer taught.  The college I retired from had a complete curriculum in Ojibway, the local native language.  You couldn't get into it unless you were fluent.  Many of these students learned the language at their mother's knee.

 

So, don't your people care about the native language or is to corrupted by Spanish?

[LexusInfernus 908]

Its actually a pretty smart course. It asks you to look deeper into what happens when you are 'wasting time behind a screen'. Its a way of opening up new sources of potential creativity. 

 

Is something like that going to help you get a job? No. Is education's sole purpose so that you can get a job? NO! Education, especially higher education is there to make you think critically about the world around you, its there to help you develop your creative skills, its there to make you a better person. Getting a job is only a very useful side effect. People that think education is there only to get them a nice job first of all miss out on what a higher education really offers you, and it also reveals the poverty of their thinking. 

 

So yeah, sneer all you want at supposed stupid courses like this, it says more about yourself then the course. 

[hym 358]

The course has eligibility restrictions preventing it from being taken by non-English majors.  I don't know how familiar anyone is with American universities, but when a course has restrictions like that, it often indicates that there are serious concerns over the potential student body that would comprise the class, and thus questions about the course's academic value.  Restricting who can take the class helps protect the academic integrity of the field of study, but at the same time, it exposes that even fellow professors have serious questions about whether the class has any value.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Well that makes sense right? I mean, obviously a class like that is unlikely to add anything of substance to someone who majors in say economics or chemistry. Those people would lack the academic background or interests to elevate the course from 'easy credits' to something that actually enhances the way they think about the world. 

[hym 358]

Theoretically, a course shouldn't need restrictions like that to ensure its academic integrity.  The fact that restrictions like that are in place is a black eye on the course.  Effectively, faculty is saying that they are allowing the course to go forward, but they have serious questions of whether the course has any academic merit.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The professor running that course has clearly been put under a microscope by the faculty.  He had better produce some acceptable results.  If he doesn't have tenure, he could be driving cab next term.