This is the entry level english course required for all students at VCU. The topics covered all relate to society/community and the students' role within the community. We sit in class for 50 minutes and chat about social issues and why they affect us. We write only 4 real papers throughout the semester and have 4 group presentations.
The idea of this class isn't all that bad, you help kids find their identity and motivate them to "make a difference." But most of the students could give two shits about it. The essays we read from our textbook are so cheesy and unrelated to us that no one can truly connect with the curriculum. I do like the class discussions and debates (they're really more of a book reading contest, who ever cites the book the most seems the most aware of the topic), but few participants are truly passionate about the topics.
One topic for debate that made me cringe was "Is the world a victim of American social imperialism?" The class was divided roughly 80% saying no, and 20% saying yes. I was on latter. The thing that gets me, is that so many of my peers are ignorant to that fact that our nation's relationships with the world are all marketing schemes. The cool cigarettes to smoke in Europe are Marlboro and Camel, McDonald's is in almost every country worldwide, and MTV influences every major music scene globally. Our opposition said that the world just "likes American things and culture." But the reason they like it, is because we make small changes to increase the mass appeal. While this isn't an overwhelmingly destructive thing in concept, my thought is, if we keep pushing our products and styles on other countries, they will eventually adopt them. This offsets the natural progression of culture locally. While all countries influence each in someway, i don't think that we should have such control over music and social image. Anyway. rant over.
I don't know really. This class, or at least my professor, seems to cater to very simplistic ideas. After reading what essays got the same A as mine, i find the standards appalling. Most of my essays took no longer than an hours time to write, while my peers claim to have spent many hours. But their essays all read like that of something a high school 3rd year would write. Isn't the point of college to raise the bar? Then why give A's for less than college level work? It makes no sense. Sure, i have fun yelling at kids during debates but i want to get my $8,000 worth. So maybe they could teach me, if only a little.
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2 comments:
James, sorry you got stuck with the group who thinks that America's social imperialism is okay. I agree with you. In my F.I. class, the majority agrees with you and me. I think if you had a more informed group of students and/or professor, you would like the course more, perhaps.
Yea, Im in Rachel's Focused Inquiry class and it is actually pretty informative and fun. :D
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