<p>I don’t doubt that courses on popular culture can be interesting and worthwhile.
Are they becoming numerous enough to displace courses that take a broader perspective on people, places, and cultures far removed from our own? If they are web based, do they still provide ample opportunities for Q&A, discussion, and challenging writing assignments that the professor returns with written feedback?</p>
<p>I agree with others who say we’d need to hear more about the specific course. Still, parents are right to take an interest in the content and rigor of college courses. The other day I was looking over the anthropology course offerings for a pretty respected LAC. Yes, it’s easy to read too much into course titles or even the descriptions … but there did seem to be a strong bias toward contemporary, trendy stuff. The only cultures that seemed to be well represented were contemporary Asia and Latin America (with lots of emphasis on modern material culture). I did not notice a single course in archaeology, physical anthropology, linguistic anthropology, or ethnographic field methods.</p>
<p>The planet is big. Human beings have been on it for a long, long time. Contemporary popular culture represents a teeny tiny slice of the human experience. </p>