Recently my local newspaper and the USA Today ("McPaper" as my fraternity brother, Harvey, calls it) newspaper have published articles regarding the growing practice whereby American universities/colleges are requiring their incoming freshmen to read one designated book. The thought behind these programs is to give the entire freshman class some "common ground" to generate conversations and unity on campus - or perhaps "group think" if campus lectures built around these common readings come with personal agendas by those faculty leading the conversation.
That said -- I still find the Common Reading concept very interesting primarily because it gets students to read at least one book before they graduate and of course if I ever get my book (a biography) published I would want a university to select it as their common book due to the royalties I would receive so I can live the lifestyle of a government employee on full pension!!!!
Perhaps I missed their announcement but it appears my Alma mater - Iowa State University - does not have a common reading program in place but if they are considering it here is a book I find very intriguing --
"Little Heathens -- Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm during the Great Depression"
by
Mildred Armstrong Kalish
I have not read it yet but plan to make it a Christmas gift for 2008 reading.
If readers out there have experience with these common readings programs I would be interested in hearing your perspectives.
Read on Macduff and damned be the man that cry, "hold, enough",
Todd
Showing posts with label university. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university. Show all posts
Friday, September 7, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Harvard Bureaucrats
While scanning one of my newly book-marked blogs managed by book critics today's posting regarding one poet's (Nicholas Christopher) experience as a freshman at Harvard University really resonated with me. I have copied an excerpt of this posting below for readers to consider --
http://www.bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/
Friday, August 17, 2007
"In Retrospect: Robert Lowell at Harvard, Fall 1969"
In the fall of 1969, as a freshman, I applied, and was admitted, to Robert Lowell's advanced poetry workshop at Harvard, a coveted class with a limited enrollment of ten. A couple of days later, before the first class meeting, I was called in to see the director of undergraduate studies in the English Department. He told me in no uncertain terms that I could not take the class because I had taken none of its prerequisites. Furthermore, it was not a class open to freshman.
Now I attended university 15 years after Mr. Christopher's freshman year and not at Harvard but the bureaucrats still controlled things because in my day we had to stand in lines in the grand ballroom of the student union to register/beg to get in classes we wanted. However, as I graduated the entire class registration system was automated so that you could add/drop/switch classes via a telephone call in system using a system of codes found in the course catalog -- a huge improvement via technology that took some power away from the whims of bureaucrats like the "director of undergraduate studies" mentioned in Mr. Christopher's posting.
Hopefully some reader out there can help me remember but years ago I read a short book/article which described how the the first universities operated. As I remember the book I read -- lecturers/learned men (yes "men" since women were not full citizens in the 12th/13th centuries -- "professors" in today's language) would set up a booth in the town square from which they would lecture on their area of expertise. Thus an astronomer would lecture in one part of the public square/court yard while a poet might be speaking in another corner of the square. Then at the end of their lectures the onlookers would contribute a few coins to compensate the lecturer - assuming the onlookers felt they actually learned something.
Now contrast that free market system against today's tenured-faculty/teacher assistants system whereby students are recipients not consumers of lectures because today's students play a flat rate tuition amount (assuming full time student status) and then must use whatever professor/teacher assistant the university assigns to them based on the classes/time slots the students select.
I prefer the original university model and see the potential for this model to develop again due to the advances we have seen in Internet-based education programs.
Markets not monopolies,
Todd
http://www.bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/
Friday, August 17, 2007
"In Retrospect: Robert Lowell at Harvard, Fall 1969"
In the fall of 1969, as a freshman, I applied, and was admitted, to Robert Lowell's advanced poetry workshop at Harvard, a coveted class with a limited enrollment of ten. A couple of days later, before the first class meeting, I was called in to see the director of undergraduate studies in the English Department. He told me in no uncertain terms that I could not take the class because I had taken none of its prerequisites. Furthermore, it was not a class open to freshman.
Now I attended university 15 years after Mr. Christopher's freshman year and not at Harvard but the bureaucrats still controlled things because in my day we had to stand in lines in the grand ballroom of the student union to register/beg to get in classes we wanted. However, as I graduated the entire class registration system was automated so that you could add/drop/switch classes via a telephone call in system using a system of codes found in the course catalog -- a huge improvement via technology that took some power away from the whims of bureaucrats like the "director of undergraduate studies" mentioned in Mr. Christopher's posting.
Hopefully some reader out there can help me remember but years ago I read a short book/article which described how the the first universities operated. As I remember the book I read -- lecturers/learned men (yes "men" since women were not full citizens in the 12th/13th centuries -- "professors" in today's language) would set up a booth in the town square from which they would lecture on their area of expertise. Thus an astronomer would lecture in one part of the public square/court yard while a poet might be speaking in another corner of the square. Then at the end of their lectures the onlookers would contribute a few coins to compensate the lecturer - assuming the onlookers felt they actually learned something.
Now contrast that free market system against today's tenured-faculty/teacher assistants system whereby students are recipients not consumers of lectures because today's students play a flat rate tuition amount (assuming full time student status) and then must use whatever professor/teacher assistant the university assigns to them based on the classes/time slots the students select.
I prefer the original university model and see the potential for this model to develop again due to the advances we have seen in Internet-based education programs.
Markets not monopolies,
Todd
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monopoly on Campus
Years ago when I was a college student we actually had three competing book stores on campus including the university-0wned book store, one owned by a fraternity alum of mine, and a smaller one near the campus town area so overall we students probably received a good deal on text book prices. Today's $7.7 billion college text book industry is built on the fact that students spend an average of $807.00 (see "History" section in the website below) annually on textbooks more book store competition is always helpful so I am promoting this start up company I recently read about:
http://www.beatthebookstore.com/
This book store operation -- founded at Utah Valley State by Mike Winward and David Monk- uses a franchise model to expand onto campuses around the country. It is encouraging to see these entrepreneurs take on what are usually government-owned (at the state universities) book stores.
Go to class,
Todd
http://www.beatthebookstore.com/
This book store operation -- founded at Utah Valley State by Mike Winward and David Monk- uses a franchise model to expand onto campuses around the country. It is encouraging to see these entrepreneurs take on what are usually government-owned (at the state universities) book stores.
Go to class,
Todd
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
