I couldn't believe this trash when I saw it. If ever there was a shining example of the rotting standards of the US education system, it would have to be this. I'm sorry, but there is NOTHING to be gained from studying Beyonce at college.
"Kevin Allred, a doctoral student who is teaching the class, is using Beyonce’s career as a way to explore American race, gender and sexual politics. The class supplements Beyonce’s videos and lyrics with readings from black feminists. Allred seeks to help students think more critically about media consumption."
Look, I don't really have anything against the study of arts and literature. I think these are important topics for any developed society and yes they do encourage critical thinking somewhat. It was my own personal decision to abstain from studying topics that wouldn't be useful to a career in business and if someone wants to major in gender studies, fine, I won't judge. Just don't go complaining when you're unemployed and 100k in student debt.
But honestly, here we have a educational institution trying to pass off feminist interpretations of manufactured pop music as legitimate intellectual stimuli. I fail to see how "all the single ladies, all the single ladies.." is culturally progressive, despite the fact the video was the greatest music video of ALL TIME. And no matter the number of female teenagers you can get chanting a chorus in a club, it is factually incorrect to argue that girls "run the world". I don't know, something about this story really bothers me.
What do you guys think? Is appealing to popular culture in the interests of formal education acceptable, or is this just another way to take advantage of impressionable female students? Just because you like something, should you put a degree on it? Or should we only study what is going to be relevant for our future careers?
link below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/30/rutgers-beyonce-course_n_4697541.html
I agree, I would never waste my time in a class like this. But to be fair, I believe you would need to have someone take the class or sit in on the class to really judge it. It could just be a catchy course title to get more students to enroll in a class that historically had bad numbers. It reminds me of a class I saw advertised at my University. It was called "Fantasy Football Strategies" or something along those lines. It turned out to be more like a debate class. You were responsible for not only managing your team, but releasing a report every week as to why you made all your decisions. You were then graded on your writing ability, communication ability, and ability to persuade. So the class looked like a joke at the beginning, but ended up being a pretty good class on how to deal with arguing, negotiation, communication, and being able to write weekly reports.
Sign me up.
This is like "The Philosophy of Star Trek", "Zombies in Popular Media", wine tasting, or alchemy. Not a core STEM course but probably going to be interesting and also packed with girls. At least they didn't make the class about Madonna. I'd sit in a couple hours a semester to see what's up.
Guest Speaker: Jay-Z
Sounds like some ass hat Phd student took their thesis and made it into an entire course.
When universities do this kinda shit it legit pisses me off the most.
It blows my mind that student loan debt is now >1 trillion yet you have academic institutions continue to come out with these half-ass basketweaving courses and program options. And I'm not at all bias against the arts because I think there are boatloads of kids today that would benefit from an introductory english lit course. It's these so-called culturally "innovative" courses that really have no business being in the course calendar of any university. A course on Beyonce (or any other similar progressive content) is not going to provide any sort of intellectual or academic development to students. Especially since you now have everyone and their dog choosing to attend a post-sec institution because they're under this false impression that a higher degree is supposed to somehow prepare you for the workplace or increase your earning potential.
It's sad that public state schools are doing this to kids who are going to take on student debt to fund their post-sec degrees. Like no, I'm not going to drop a couple thousand on a bullshit course that covers a bunch of content that I could Google in my free time. And it bothers me even more that students are going to take these grade-inflating basketweaving courses as electives since employers now place such a large emphasis on your GPA. I would love to take some higher level STEM related electives (like comp sci) that would actually provide me with tangible skills I could apply in a job but I'd have to forgo the opportunity of an easy A. And what on earth qualifies a university professor to lecture on these bullshit topics anyway??
I could actually go on a huge rant about everything that's wrong with higher-education but I won't because I don't wanna get re-pissed about the a topic I've already had many drawn-out drunken discussions on. And I think the title of this article from The Atlantic sums up my thoughts perfectly:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/we-are-creating-walmarts-of-higher-education/282619/
^kinda went off on a little tangent there...sorry
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