On College Course X

I think I expressed myself inelegantly this morning. Having a very busy day today and a very busy week this week (but hopefully not a busy month this month. Time will tell.). But I did want to follow up on something.

A fun game by some, (particularly Rush Limbaugh, although he's far from the only offender) is to pick a course out of a college catalog and talk about how ridiculous. This discussion usually involves a few misconceptions, that I'd like to point out. Let's pick a random class that seems like it would be a waste of time; Images of Women in American Sitcoms; From Lucy to Roseanne. Actually that sounds like an interesting class.

First sarcastic criticism. "Yep, that's what the world needs, more experts on Roles for Females in Sitcoms. I heard just the other day that IBM was looking to hire a top specialist in the field of Sitcom Actress Studies." Of course, that's kind of absurd, which is the whole point. Nobody expects to get a job as, strictly speaking, a Sitcom Actress Studies. They might, if they are interested in the subject, write some books on the subject while teaching at a college (so in that sense they could make some money), but they are hardly going to entering corporate America with just that under their belt. However, they might have that and a half dozen accounting/business management courses under their belt.

Second sarcastic criticism. "I remember back when kids used to study Shakespeare or Milton. Now it's just sitcoms. What a waste!" First of all I appreciate this criticism on some level; the fault is when the person assumes it's an either or situation. A student has the option to take both Female Sitcom Roles and Shakespeare, and it's not very common that Shakespeare is being squeezed out by pop culture studies. But I can appreciate that getting students to take Shakespeare is a bit like getting kids to eat Brussels sprouts; it helps if there's nothing else on the plate.

On the other hand Female Sitcom Roles have more to say about our current society. Watching Lucy, or Mary Tyler Moore, or Diane Chambers, or Elaine or Marge Simpson can reveal, if one watches with a critical eye, the changing ways we look at women in America. While I don't want to devalue Shakespeare, I also don't want to devalue other knowledge.

I have more to say on the subject, but will have to hold off. Candidate review tomorrow, as we focus on the candidates favorite Ice Cream Flavors.