<p>I just wanted to urge all of you, particularly the Freshman, to consider signing up for HUM 218-219 next semester. It is the second part of Princeton's humanities sequence, an amazing set of courses that provides an overview of western literature, philosophy, and history from ancient times to the late 1800s. The second semester begins at rounghly 1400 (I think Petrarch and Machiavelli were the first authors we read), and the double course counts as an LA and an EC</p>
<p>Although this is usually a Freshman course, I saw a flyer today that indicated that it was being opened to students from all classes, probably because enrollment was down this year. I can't emphasize enough how wonderful this class is: besides making me a better reader, writer, and thinker, it opened me up to a whole range of works that I would otherwise not have read. Not only was the assigned reading valuable, since ,leaving the course I have continued reading classic texts that it might never have occured to me to pick up without the course. The lectures and precepts, which are all led by the professors, are entertaining and engaging, and foster close relationships between faculty and students and between the students in the class.</p>
<p>Although most people take both semesters, we had two students last year who entered second semester. Both loved it and wished that they had signed up for first semester as well. Seriously, people, you need to look into this course. It would be a shame for the program to die from lack of interest when it has formed such a crucial part of so many people's Princeton experiences over the past 15 years or so.</p>
<p>Advertisement over!</p>