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In Praise of Unusual Courses
By Richard Nantel | April 10, 2008
I’ve taken a number of unusual courses in my academic life.
A college I attended offered a course titled “Introduction to Welding,” which sounded like a good way to get three credits. I really enjoyed it. Getting metal pieces to stick together was great fun, and the risk that the gas tanks might explode provided the perfect level of danger for a 17-year-old boy.
“Canadian Farming” was another unusual class. I learned about crop rotation, the species of chickens that produce white and brown eggs, and how to reach inside a cow to help her deliver a calf. The appeal of this class was often the grossness factor, again, perfect for a teenage boy.
(One thing that stands out today about the Canadian Farming class was that, even though the course was taught by a 60 year-old farmer in overalls, the girls in the class were, “like, totally into him.” This should have inspired all the boys to become farmers, but, being the 70s, we were much too busy wearing berets, reading depressing poetry, and attempting to look cool, mistakenly thinking this was what girls wanted.)
A few years after I graduated, students became much more focused on taking elective courses that were aligned with their core area of study. They abandoned the try-anything-especially-if-it-sounds-easy approach to picking classes and instead focused on selecting courses that would best prepare them for the outside world and a successful career in their chosen field. (How boring.)
Whereas I recall almost nothing of the vast majority of the classes I took in my late teens, I still remember much of what I learned in “Welding 101” and “Canadian Farming.” These courses were so outside of my comfort zone, every minute of the lectures was new and useful. Although I was after easy credits, I’m glad I enrolled in these classes. They taught me that engaging learning opportunities exist everywhere.
Thank goodness unusual courses still exist. Browsing the Web, I came across the following:
April 12th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
It’s funny, I feel the same way about certain classes. I still remember wood and metal shop … I totally loved those machines! And I remember manually editing (yes, splicing) outtakes during a sound recording course for a McGill recording of a performance of some antiquated instrument resembling a harpsichord. Cool fun stuff!
April 14th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Thanks for your comment, Irongoddess. I’ve spoken to a few people who too mention their most memorable courses were the ones that were unusual and outside of their core area of study. After a few years out of school, no one seems to remember “Introduction to Statistics.”