the liberal studies program has no spirit.

I made this choice not because I wanted the easy way out or wanted to take fewer classes. I truly believe that these classes fulfill the ideal goal of whatever blah blah blah, and if they are to be discounted simply because they don't match the departmental prefixes and numbering system, I submit this as reprehensible. the liberal studies program is designed to round students, to prepare them for the "outside world," and yet it refuses to accept courses that do not fit exactly into NAU's system block? now, why? because it is easier. because it is easier to create a system with a stated goal of improving students' minds and lives, and then forgetting that goal in the bureaucracy. more than once, I've been asked if I believe I'm "special," if I deserve "special attention." yes! of course I am! aren't you? isn't every student? when did the liberal studies banner become nothing more than a cover sheet for a Fordesque assembly line? if the position of the liberal studies program and board is that any class that doesn't come from NAU and doesn't fit into its system is flawed, lesser, or not worth bothering with, then I contend that it is the program itself which is failing, and whose worth should be seriously reconsidered.
what bothers me most about this whole fiasco is the implication that I've made some kind of mistake. that, by not coming to NAU as a freshman, and by trying to transfer credits in from different schools, I'm somehow doing the wrong thing. I'm being difficult in trying to question the program, difficult in trying to petition my classes for acceptance. why can't I just take NAU's classes? I'll say it again: the goal of the liberal studies program, as laid out by the program itself, is to prepare students to be rounded, creative, and several other lofty adjectives that never happen. yet, when a student comes along who takes the time to read those guidelines, to look at the forgotten spirit and think that, just maybe, it's not a bad idea and his classes fill those requirements, that's the one who's punished.
now, if you disagree with me, why don't you ask yourself, what truly prepares a student for outer worldlyness - taking classes merely to fill slots in a required schedule, or attending other institutions to take classes and have experiences completely outside the province of programmed imagination?



who's being helped here? that's my question. by forcing me to drop cross-departmental classes, by forcing me to take something other than indigenous astronomy and medical sociology - two classes that are both higher division and very, very different than my concentration of creative writing - I now have to take classes designed to fill a slot. is that all that the liberal arts program has becoming, slot-filling? what is its goal? where has it been lost?
perhaps I'm biased. the school I had to leave didn't have such a program; classes were taken at the students' leisure, since the adminstation and staff knew that if (1) their instructors were good (2) the classes were quality and (3) the students were interested, horizons would be expanded. maybe that wouldn't work everywhere. maybe the fault of the whole thing is the structured educational system, which decries THIS CLASS, THIS CLASS! here and nothing else.
but I contend that when a student is genuinely trying to expand his or her boundaries with classes far outside his or her area of study; when that student has already experienced classes on every topic imaginable, in every discipline offered; when that student has classes from other institutions that couldn't even be duplicated at the current university; and when all of that is ignored simply to make things easier, to make an existing class fit an existing class for an existing student, it isn't only the student that suffers. the class itself suffers, because it could be filled with students who genuinely want the knowledge. the instructor suffers, because he or she is forced to teach a class to students who aren't genuinely interested in the subject. the school itself suffers, because when slot-filling becomes the norm rather than inquiry and exploration, then learning has stopped and mass-feeding has begun. the portents are here, and the scenarios are falling already. I implore you, don't ignore the benefits of true aesthetic and humanistic inquiry in order to fill a slot with the spiritless title stamped on its box.



let's compare syllabi!
hum 101, semester total:
The course grade is determined on the basis of a mirrored set of interpretive questions taken at the beginning and end of the semester (10 points total), five short-answer discussion questions (10 points total), two online, small-group threaded discussions (10 points total), two response papers based on assigned texts (10 points each), a 1600 word term paper (long session only) counting 25 points, and a final examination (25 points). The course grade is based on a standard curve, 100 total points. There is one and only one make-up assignment (5 points).

so, that's a total of two short papers and one longer one for the ENTIRE SEMESTER. two discussions, for the ENTIRE SEMESTER.





let's look at two weeks' worth of work in dance.

read excerpts from african rhythm, african sensibility by john chernoff (p 34-37, 50 &51, 144-151) and chapter one in "gimme the kneebone bent: music and dance in africa" from stepping on the blues by jacqui malone. select five quotes from readings and respond to them. view the video black dance in america in class and discuss. (one week)

read about any three choreographers in african american genius in modern dance and prepare a paper discussing them and why you chose them. view the videos rainbow round my shoulders and new worlds, new forms in class and discuss. (one week)

two field trips - one, to see the dayton contemporary dance company, and two, to see akram kahn at ohio state. respond to each experience in two-three pages, discussing the intent of the choreographer - communications of the dance, integration of costume, music, and lighting with the vision. also discuss the kind of movement used and your response to each dance. (mid-week)


in two weeks and one unit (african dance), the load of both work and critical thought has surpassed the semester total of work for the NAU class.