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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!ucbcad!ingres
From: ingres@ucbcad.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: strange undergrad courses (quick sum - (nf)
Message-ID: <333@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 27-Aug-83 21:42:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.333
Posted: Sat Aug 27 21:42:55 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Aug-83 22:21:01 EDT
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Organization: UC Berkeley, CAD Group
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#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