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The fifteen strangest college courses in America
Via Jason Kottke, here is the list. Call me warped, but I was impressed at how sensible the offerings were. "Learning from YouTube" strikes me as more valuable than 80 percent of what is currently on tap. I also think it is often useful to teach science through the medium of a TV show or to teach philosophy through The Simpsons. It fosters personal involvement and if you don't, most of the students aren't learning anything anyway.
But I have to say (call me a philistine if you wish), I was dismayed at "Underwater Basket Weaving," as it is taught at the University of California, San Diego. Might they have Mark Machina give a guest lecture on the relevance of non-expected utility models for underwater basket weaving?
Maybe not.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 12, 2009 at 11:16 AM in Education | Permalink
Comments
There should be a class on taking money from silly college students and their parents.
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Mar 12, 2009 11:31:16 AM
I wonder if any of these exist for in some substantial part the reason of granting students a painless way to appease some of the more 'irritating' general education requirements imposed upon them.
Posted by: Paludicola at Mar 12, 2009 11:40:12 AM
Higher education has a long tradition of making people thirst for knowledge. These classes are important because they apply that outside areas that would usually be considered academic. By the way, I think zombies are a really fantastic culture study.
Posted by: Russ at Mar 12, 2009 11:45:06 AM
I'd guess that only the basket was under water for underwater basket weaving, in order to keep the reeds nice and supple. I guess this would be part of an fine arts course and I could see why it would be useful.
The name is very silly though.
Posted by: Sam at Mar 12, 2009 11:56:47 AM
Never mind. I should have looked at the link. How weird.
Posted by: Sam at Mar 12, 2009 11:57:53 AM
Holy crap! The Judge Judy course sounds like a brilliant idea!
Posted by: josh at Mar 12, 2009 12:04:01 PM
Bet you can see this coming from a kilometer away:You're a warped philistine. Call me boring and judgmental.
Posted by: songar at Mar 12, 2009 12:04:11 PM
Quick comment: Underwater basket weaving at UCSD would be a rec class, which means that no one who takes this class earns units or gets any closer to graduating. It is the equivalent to their "beginning surfing" classes.
Posted by: agent00yak at Mar 12, 2009 12:05:10 PM
give it up for the university of california! why the west coast is the best coast.
Posted by: hern at Mar 12, 2009 12:05:22 PM
I had the opportunity to take #5 Cyberporn and Society during my undergrad at the University at Buffalo. It was an upper level communications course, with a couple prerequisites. It was still packed every semester. The viewing material often handled the fringe (long tail) offerings of cyberporn. Despite the professor's very serious demeanor, a lot of people walked out on the lectures. As I recall, it was rather intensive and required a lot of work (for a communications course).
Posted by: Dann Ryan at Mar 12, 2009 12:09:40 PM
i seem to recall that ucsd began that class after the idea of an Underwater Basket Weaving class became the source of widespread hilarity.
Posted by: bend at Mar 12, 2009 12:16:23 PM
Salo is not a porn movie. Its regarded as a classic in Ittaly
Posted by: k at Mar 12, 2009 12:31:59 PM
Most of these seem to be fluff courses aimed at non-majors who need a class in X subject to meet graduation requirements. All of these "[Subject] of [Popular culture subject-matter]" fit that description, along with "Joy of Garbage" and "Far Side Entomology." Essentially some "accessible" subject matter is used as a vehicle for talking about a "real" subject matter at a relatively shallow level.
The other popular-culture courses though are taking popular culture as the object of study, and seem more like they have more potential as "real" classes.
Posted by: no comment at Mar 12, 2009 12:34:56 PM
A good fraction of courses in colleges today are much worse than fluff -often they are political indoctrination and the like. It is a sad comment on "higher education," but underwater basket weaving is by no means the worst course encountered by students. The real problem is that far too many people go to college -and that is due to government funding of higher education and the need to spend all that money.
Posted by: critic at Mar 12, 2009 12:50:40 PM
My wife proudly took Underwater Basket Weaving while getting her Math degree from UCSD. A few points:
1. agent00yak is correct: the UCSD basket weaving class is a rec class. It was a three day rec class when my wife took it.
2. Certain types of basket weaving do require that the fiber be woven while wet, so working "under water" is part of the craft.
3. The offering is tongue-in-chic. My wife's section held class in a hot tub.
Posted by: tylerh at Mar 12, 2009 1:01:27 PM
The Starcraft class in online:
http://www.berkeleystarcraft.com/
Posted by: Aaron at Mar 12, 2009 1:03:20 PM
Tyler, if you think these courses are "sensible", I'd hate to think what you've been exposed to, because
your theshold for sensibility is laughably. This is why people are walking away from the legacy academy
and going to franchised tech colleges and online schools. It might be fun to sit through a porn class;
sure as hell isn't worth 1/4-1/6 of a semester's tuition-and colleges have been getting GOVERNMENT
bailout money for years. (Oh its called student aid, but its really a subsidy for a broken business model)
Posted by: Phil at Mar 12, 2009 1:09:10 PM
Regarding the Simpsons & Starcraft classes at Cal, both of those are offered through the DECal system (decal.org), which is student taught (with a faculty sponsor) and offers only 1 credit. The Simpsons class is generally full and requires an entrance exam. However, the one class I wanted to take but couldn't since I wasn't 21 at the time was taught through the Statistics department.
And there is going to be the inevitable argument that these classes are a waste of time, money, resources, etc. I would counter those with:
1. Each of these classes is developed by a student interested in the material and each class generally has a number of students interested in learning it.
2. Students pay for the class, and the "instructors" are not paid.
3. Classes are held outside the normal class schedule, when buildings are empty and unused.
Posted by: Scott at Mar 12, 2009 1:28:30 PM
For the record, Underwater Basket Weaving at Reed isn't even a "class" in any official sense. It's a traditional part of Paideia, which is a week or unusual or tongue-in-cheek informal classes taught by faculty or (more often) students. The whole week is considered more entertainment than education by the students and administration.
Posted by: rfriel at Mar 12, 2009 1:40:09 PM
@ Phil & critic
Ever heard of the positive externalities of higher education? From external productivity gains to citizenship, the positive externalities warrant subsidization. Not to mention the silly "socialist" idea that everyone should have equal chance in life.
Also note that education is nearly all not-for-profit, so the point that it is a "broken business model" is really a non sequitur.
Posted by: brian at Mar 12, 2009 1:41:46 PM
oh come on, no space tourism at RIT? that class was an entertaining way to fill a 2 credit hour gap in my schedule.
Posted by: ron at Mar 12, 2009 3:06:37 PM
The art of walking sounds like a blast
Posted by: Timothy at Mar 12, 2009 4:05:36 PM
UC Davis has real courses in Tractor Driving, Mushroom Cultivation, Beer Brewing, Winemaking, and Water in Popular Culture (??).
Posted by: Andy at Mar 12, 2009 4:06:11 PM
A prof in undergrad showed several TNG episodes in introductory PHI courses and the Human Nature class: "Measure of a Man" and "Ship in a Bottle" are two I remember. For intro classes, they're not bad subject matter for study.
She also used The Simpsons and I can remember learning about Kant via The Matrix.
Posted by: Vernunft at Mar 12, 2009 5:09:40 PM
As an alumn of all three mentioned UC campuses!, I figured I needed to chime in.
The DeCal classes (Democratic class at Cal) that were the biggest sources of protest while I was there were the courses on sexuality. There was a women's sexuality class for several years, and, in response, somebody organized a men's class. One feature of that class was taking polaroids of everybody's genitalia and trying to match photograph to student. That didn't go over so well when it hit the papers....
My resident advisor my first year at UCSD had a certificate of completion for having taken the Underwater Basket Weaving class - sort of a certificate of dubious merit. I took several ballroom dance classes through the rec program (they used to be offered as PE classes, the UCSD disbanded the PE department), and I know several people to have taken massage classes. This is also a school with an archery club (that shoots on-campus), and, at least at the time, a marksmanship club that shot off-campus, both well supported by the associated students.
UC Davis has a large ag. school. Hence tractor driving is a very sensible course. There are also quite a few cows on campus, and some pigs. Then there is the large population of monkeys most people don't know about:). It also boasts the best Viticulture and Enology department in the world, so wine and beer making classes aren't out of place. There is a decent-sized contingent of South American studying there, going home, and improving their wine industries. Oh, and if you are nice, you can do them a favor and volunteer for their wine tasting panels - their own grad. students are a little overloaded working for each other's panels....
UC Davis also has an experimental college, which is the analogue of rec. classes at UCSD and DeCals at Cal....
Posted by: EnlightenedDuck at Mar 12, 2009 7:04:55 PM
