dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (08/23/83)
A few weeks ago I posted an article in which I mentioned the course
on "The Poetry of Physics and The Physics of Poetry" in the U of
Toronto calendar, and my own experience in taking Old Babylonian.
I asked for people to tell me about strange courses they had taken in
undergrad. Well, here's what I got:
African Religion
Beer Tasting
Buddhist Views of Death and the Afterlife
Clothing Construction
Creative Seeing
Golf
Hallucinogenic Training
Human Sexuality
Popular American Culture as Seen Through the Western
Rock Music
Sci-Fi Physics
Sleep and Dreams
The French Revolution Through Film
Theatre as History
Theory and Practice of Electronic Music
Weeds
Words, Why Music?
A condensed version of all the mail I received appears below.
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From: decvax!tekchips!teklabs!stevens
At M.I.T., there is a course offered called "Creative Seeing". I ended up
taking it as a listener.
Steve Silberberg
[Later message]
Actually, the course is a humanities distribution course (of which three are
required over 4 years of school). Since distribution courses usually require
a lot more work than regular humanities courses, one tries to find the easiest
gut distribution they can. In my case, this was creative seeing. The course
is always way oversubscribed, and as it turns out, I was really dropped from
the course and never did get to take it as for credit or even as a listener.
I'm told that the course entails bending hangers and watching films on how
you perceive edges and lines etc. I felt it would be an enriching cultural
experience to take that course. Either that or an easy way to get out of a
requirement.
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From: decvax!harpo!inmet!jlp
I think the strangest i had was African Religion ( this was MIT )
Jerryl Payne
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From uw-beaver!eli@uw-june Thu Aug 4 01:13:24 1983
From: Eli Messenger <eli@uw-june>
I had an unusual English class at UC Berkeley. It was (something like)
"Popular American culture as seen through the Western." We read a number
of Western novels (Zane Gray, etc.), and saw a Western film each week.
Another which I saw in the catalogue was Pest Management 151: "Weeds"
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From uw-beaver!tektronix!tekid!bentonh Thu Aug 4 01:13:50 1983
Does a beer tasting class qualify?
Taught? at the Oregon State University - Experimental
College, one eve per week, three weeks.
Covers:
the Americas
the British Isles and Europe
and the Asian rim
Homework (you guessed it): the 'prof' sent
a case of Bud home with everyone.
Benton Holzwarth
[Later message:]
Credit? Well, yes, with the experimental college.
I don't think it amounted to anything in the regular
university, they only sanctioned it, and gave some
time and money to the proposition.
Benton (I wasn't interested in credit,
I was only in it for the beer!) Holzwarth
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From: decvax!seismo!hao!menlo70!sri-unix!hss
Buddhist Views of Death and the Afterlife. We started the course by talking
about suicide. I'm not kidding.
Harry Sameshima
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From allegra!rlgvax!jsg Thu Aug 4 08:36:43 1983
When I was a freshman (many years ago) at the U. of Pittsburgh Bradford
(one of the coldest places in the U.S., but that's a different story)
subcampus, I took a course entiled Sci-Fi Physics. As I recall, we
studied some basic physics, read lots of good Sci-Fi, and discussed the
physical properties and possibilities involved. It was pretty much a
blow-off filler class, but it wasn't at all easy. The prof. was good
and we read soem good Heinlein (sp), Asimov (sp), and some Star Trek,
among other things. We had a great time discussing matter/anti-matter
in the Star Trek stuff, and basically had a good time with some great
Sci-Fi.
jeff
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From: decvax!tekecs!davidl
I think I may have specialized in "strange" courses. I was an Architecture
major at Washington University in St. Louis, and while most Architecture majors
took Physics 101 and Psych 100, I took
Music 421-422: Theory and Practice of Electronic Music
Two semesters of theory and hands-on work in a dynamite
synthesizer lab featuring multi-track tape decks, a fine mixer,
and several Moog and Arp syntehsizers. Both composition and
performance (on tape) were important, and the teacher had some
strange ideas of what "music" could be. Aside from this, I've
never laid hands on an instrument and can't read or write
music.
History 4022: Theatre as History
This was a small seminar (about 8-10 students) which explored
history, literature, theatre, and foreign culture through an
in-depth analysis of the Bunraku (puppet plays) of the Tokugawa
period in Japan. My final paper was a comparison of Chikamatsu
Monzaemon (one of the most revered Bunraku authors) and Arthur
Miller. The interesting thing about this course was that it
was cross-listed under History, Japanese, Drama, Asian
Studies, Literature, and (I think) Psychology, and was
co-taught by a History professor and an Asian Studies
professor who was also a big opera buff. I think that no two
of the students in the course had the same major.
I also took courses in Comparative Planetology, Ethics in Literature, and
Science Fiction, but those were rather ordinary by comparison...
-- David D. Levine
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From allegra!rlgvax!tom Fri Aug 5 17:22:52 1983
Our strangest course at SUNY Stony Brook was "Rock Music" (Music 108(?)).
It was a VERY popular course (about 800 students), but the teacher
wished to teach a small class of interested students. So, on the first day
he announced: "If you are taking this class pass/fail, listen up. If you
show up and sign your name to EITHER the midterm OR the final, you
will pass the course. No need to show up to the classes."
Well, the next class had about 60 students instead of 800. What all the
pass/fail people didn't realize that with 740 students anchoring the low
part of the scale, it was incredibly easy to get an 'A' if you took the
course for a grade.
The class was very interesting. The final consisted of multiple choice
questions on 4 songs: Stevie Wonder("Superstitious"), The Who("Baba O'Reilly")
Elvis Presley(<I forgot>), and Alice Cooper("School's Out").
People danced in the aisles during Stevie Wonder. Alice Cooper was
appropriate because (a) it was finals time during Spring semester
and (b) the last question of the exam was:
"This is an example of: (a) Motown Rhythm and Blues, (b) early
1950's Nashville sound, (c) classical borrowings, (d) beer-soaked,
chromosome-twisted, acid rock.
[Later message:]
Yes, they played the music, during courses and at the
final. The class was given in an auditorium with reasonable sound
facilities.
- tom beres
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From: decvax!seismo!hao!menlo70!sri-unix!bhayes
I took "The French Revolution Through Film".
-Barry Hayes
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From: <decvax!DECWRL!qubix!ios!daves>
I got my BS in Math Science & MS in CS from Stanford. The most
unusual course I took was
"Sleep & Dreams" - offered by Psych & Med School (jointly). One of
the few courses on sleeping & dreaming (not dream
understanding, but why we dream at all) anyway,
one of the few courses nationwide on this subject.
"Human Sexuality" - Not so unusual anymore, but it is (was) the most
popular course at Stanford.
I also had a lot of strange courses in mathematics, but for the UseNet
audience, that wouldn't be so very strange..
Dave Schnepper
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From: cornell!mcnc!burl!sb1!sb6!emory!gatech!pwh
Brown University (my ugrad alma mater) has quite a selection of unusual
courses, many spurred by a program called Special Themes wherein any
professor may teach *any* course she feels like teaching as long as it
passes the Educational Policy Committee. Slightly more standard fare would
include the undergraduate concentrations in Semiotics and History of
Mathematics.
phil hutto
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From: decvax!microsof!fluke!roger
Saw your article on strange courses and it got me thing of a course I
took one summer. I was going to school using my VA benifits. In order
to qualify as a full time student I had to take 4 credit hours. The
course I wanted to take was only 3 credit hours. Since the whole session
lasted 8 weeks to get a full semesters course in I did not want to take
another 3 credit hour course. After all I was married and had a kid and
I wanted to be able to see them at least some of the time during the
8 weeks. So I started scanning for an easy course I could take. A
real trick during the summer when nothing is offered.
I finally found the course I needed. It was only one credit hour, no
out of class work, and nothing that was mentally taxing. It was a
course on the fundmentals of GOLF. Since I was going to a university
with a big football program I took a guess that the program was one
of the simple classes to all the football players to get and easy
high grade to help their GPA. So playing it safe I took the class
pass/fail so I did not have to worry about having to fight for a high
grade.
It turned out to be a rather fun course and it allowed me to relax from the
fun but demanding class on combinatorial algorithms I was taking.
Roger Ferrel
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From uw-beaver!ubc-vision!alberta!auvax!madrid Sat Aug 13 02:00:03 1983
I'll bet I'm the only person on the Net who has taken a University-level
course which included, among other semi-useful things, 5 different ways
to make a Bound Buttonhole. It was in a course labeled Clothing Construction
403. (A few - defensive - words of explanation: I'm doing a grad. degree
looking at clothing in a historic and cross-cultural context. Because
the degree will be out of the Department of Clothing & Textiles, Faculty
of Home Economics, the Powers That Be decreed that I should exhibit at
least minimal competence in the sorts of things that people in general
would expect of a Home Economist. As things have a way of turning out,
I have been doing thesis work setting up an automated data base to
serve as catalogue for the Historic Costume & Textiles Collection, thus
I am working now not as a museum Registrar (as had been my original
intention), but as a Programmer/Analyst. I suppose that a number of the
courses I've taken recently would sound esoteric to others. A sampling:
Pre-Colombian Peruvian Textiles, Clothing and Textiles of Ch'ing Dynasty
China (with John Vollmer of your very fine ROM), Textile Chemistry and
Conservation courses, etc., etc.
And then there were the 'political' courses of an era you might remember.
Yes, I suppose that anyone who studied cuneiform rather than accounting
would probably be of that vintage. Anthropology of Capitalism, anyone?
R.
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From linus!rayssd!hxe Wed Aug 17 02:23:17 1983
In my freshman year I took a course called "Words, Why Music?"
This course theoretically explored the relationship between
(what else?) the words and the music in songs. I got an A.
Heather Emanuel {allegra, linus, brunix} rayssd!hxe
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From: decvax!rochester!FtG
At Portland State University ("Where the 60's never died.") I took a course
in "Hallucinagenic (sp) Training" in the Psych. Dept. You got trained
in self hypnotism for the purposes of creating "visualizations" of goals
and the like. It turned out to be to much "self-help" and not enough
"conscious raising" for my interests at the time. One conclusion: drugs
are a complete waste of money. I achieved only minimal effects but
what I "saw" was startling.
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Now, let's ear it from the people who did entire degrees on such courses....
Dave Sherman
Toronto
--
{allegra,cornell,floyd,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,uw-beaver,watmath}!utcsrgv!lsuc!davedembry@hplabs.UUCP (Paul E. Dembry) (08/24/83)
#R:utcsrgv:-206100:hplabs:16800001:000:123 hplabs!dembry Aug 24 09:03:00 1983 And people wonder why universities don't have the money to buy better lab equipment or pay higher salaries to professors!!
ingres@ucbcad.UUCP (08/26/83)
#R:utcsrgv:-206100:ucbcad:4800002:000:1557 ucbcad!ingres Aug 25 21:19:00 1983 Give me a break. Human sexuality is a strange course? I would consider it a rather important topic, since it is rather pervasive (e.g., most of our parents had sex :->). Views of life after death are decently important in understanding a culture; it would make a good anthro course. Beer tasting wouldn't make any sense at all, unless it is at a school which teaches bee making (U of Cal Davis teaches winemaking; I don't know of any which teach beer making, but I don't know). I admit that several of those courses do sound strange, but, hell, they might fit into some cirriculum quite nicely. It is also not necessary for every course to have some practical application; some courses are designed to present interesting material. That's what a liberal arts education is about. If you want only practical courses, feel free to attend a business college. This sort of harping is amusing, but hardly useful. In fact, it can be quite counterproductive. One person has already commented that this shows why universities are having financial problems (loose paraphrase). Bah. Courses, even (and sometimes especially) the odd ones, are what a university is all about. And it doesn't take much money to teach about Buddhism; teaching techincal courses in physical sciences (chem, physics, computer science) is much more expensive. An open, chainging, and flexible system is going to produce some corkers, but if you don't try something new and/or interesting (or sometimes even stupid sounding), you won't ever find out anything new. Ken Arnold
ingres@ucbcad.UUCP (08/28/83)
#R:utcsrgv:-206100:ucbcad:4800003:000:1557 ucbcad!ingres Aug 27 17:23:00 1983 Give me a break. Human sexuality is a strange course? I would consider it a rather important topic, since it is rather pervasive (e.g., most of our parents had sex :->). Views of life after death are decently important in understanding a culture; it would make a good anthro course. Beer tasting wouldn't make any sense at all, unless it is at a school which teaches beer making (U of Cal Davis teaches winemaking; I don't know of any which teach beer making, but I don't know). I admit that several of those courses do sound strange, but, hell, they might fit into some cirriculum quite nicely. It is also not necessary for every course to have some practical application; some courses are designed to present interesting material. That's what a liberal arts education is about. If you want only practical courses, feel free to attend a business college. This sort of harping is amusing, but hardly useful. In fact, it can be quite counterproductive. One person has already commented that this shows why universities are having financial problems (loose paraphrase). Bah. Courses, even (and sometimes especially) the odd ones, are what a university is all about. And it doesn't take much money to teach about Buddhism; teaching techincal courses in physical sciences (chem, physics, computer science) is much more expensive. An open, changing, and flexible system is going to produce some corkers, but if you don't try something new and/or interesting (or sometimes even stupid-sounding), you won't ever find out anything new. Ken Arnold
engels@ihuxs.UUCP (09/03/83)
Three cheers for a liberal arts education!!!!! It expands your mind -- all technical, no liberal arts makes Jack/Jill a dull boy/girl!