<p>I have a couple friends in that class (it is a first year seminar) and they love it, for what it's worth.</p>
<p>You can learn a lot about American society using baseball as the jumping off point...</p>
<p>and lots of colleges have classes like these...</p>
<p>a quick look shows my school with:
Physiology of Lance Armstrong
Psychopath Cinema
Literature and Medicine</p>
<p>my college requires a freshmen seminar for all freshmen, they max out at 15 students per class, and they are almost all "writing intensive" which covers the freshmen writing requirement. You can place out of the writing requirement if you have the AP score, but you still need to take a seminar, so you basically have to take it anyway, although there are a couple that are not "writing intensive". And since you have to take them, they have tons of subjects. Some are fairly standard, but some are "out there". There have been classes on Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and Sherlock Holmes Mysteries... etc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
why not spend your time learning something that is useful
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It is not useful to learn about the history of American society? I am glad you have arbitrarily labeled some subjects useful and others not.</p>
<p>
[quote]
why not spend your time learning something that is useful
[/quote]
What do you define as useful? I think any class is worth taking if it stretches your mind or makes you look at things differently, which a baseball class most certainly could do if taught well. </p>
<p>And because other people have been playing this game, here are some of my favorite Freshmen Year Initiative titles from classes offered this year at my school:</p>
<p>--Resisting the Romance in Black and White and Technicolor (African American Studies)
--Haiti: Myths and Realities (Anthropology. This prof teaches several classes on Haiti and Voodoo, all of which are supposed to be excellent)
--Three Great Myths: Prometheus, Persephone, and Dionysus (Classic Civ)
--National Parks: Geology, Ecology and Geoenvironmental Issues (Environmental Science)
--Travel Narratives and African History (History)
--Mathematical Views: A Cultural Sampler (Math)
--Music and Downtown New York, 1950 – 1970 (Music)
--Reading Stories (Russian)
--In a Manner of Speaking: An Introduction to Classical Rhetoric (Classic Civ)
-- Forensics: The Real Science Behind CSI (Chem)
-- An Invitation to Numbers (Math)</p>
<p>Probabley the coolest sounding class title at my school is: "God After the Death of God: Postmodern Echoes of Premodern Thought." Though as you may be able to tell from the subtitle, that class is FAR from a joke.</p>
<p>The course as described in the article sounds quite interesting, and very appropriate for a freshman seminar aimed at getting kids to look beyond the obvious, do various forms of research, and write.</p>
<p>Hey Dogwood, things are looking better than I thought!</p>
<p>Oh me of little faith... :-)</p>
<p>I would probably fall in love with this class since I'm a baseball fanatic.</p>
<p>All right - All together now: "Sweet Caroline, ba ba ba, Good times never looked so good -so good so good so good." Gotta love those Red Sox! Two of my children are going to Sunday night's game. Sweet! (or if you prefer - Wicked Awesome!!)</p>
<p>"I've been inclined, ba ba ba, To believe they never would!"</p>
<p>Red Sox just set a playoff record by beating LAA 11 times in a row in the post-season. I suggest they hire bodyguards next season the next time they go to LA to play a game. </p>
<p>I'm sorry Angels fans, you must be SO frustrated. You have the best team in MLB! You deserve some post-season success! Good thing it's laid-back LA. Because if the situation were reversed, there'd be blood in the streets of Boston. .</p>
<p>BTW, Jason Bay = home runs AND defense. I loved Manny.... but I don't miss him.</p>
<p>Frustrated? Yeah, go ask a Cubs fan and see how they feel. </p>
<p>Let's sweep them tonight! Go Dodgers!</p>
<p>Ohhh Cubbies fans.... it was not long ago at all that we Red Sox fans were feeling your same pain.... it WILL happen for you some day, hopefully soon!</p>
<p>My ex-science professor at BU co-teaches the Baseball Sabermetrics course at Tufts.</p>
<p>As far as cool classes go, we have:</p>
<p>The Future of Your TV (not as cool as it sounds--I dropped it)
Disasters in Hollywood
Oenology (study of wine)</p>
<p>Amongst others I cant think of.</p>
<p>Sabermetrics is fun. :)</p>
<p>Yeah, it's really interesting stuff.</p>