It has been 9 months since I have graduated college, and oh do I miss it. I miss my friends there. I miss Main Street. I miss the beautiful campus. I miss being able to take a nap in the middle of the day. But, being the huge dork that I am, one of the biggest things that I miss is classes. Every semester, when the new class schedule came out, I would excitedly flip through to see what classes were offered and what professors were teaching them. The beginning of the semester was always exciting because I got to look through the syllabus to see what I would be learning for the next semester. Even the trip to the bookstore for the semester's books was a thrill.
But throughout my four years, there were the few classes that I loved. I would look forward to attending, and when the semester was over, I was sad that these classes were over as well.
Here are the good, the bad/ugly of the classes during my college career, done by year.
Freshman:
The Good
Civil Rights Movement
The reason I liked this class so much can be seen here.
Since I already wrote about this class before, I get two good for freshman year.
Intro to Screen Arts
The professor for this class was hilarious, and my friends still give me a hard time about my supposed crush on him. But what I really loved about the class was that I no longer can watch a film without noticing, critiquing, and analyzing it.
The Bad
Child Development
While the class was very interesting, the testing was just plain evil. The professor was a good guy, but he was used to teaching doctorate students. The tests were extremely long and hard. I ended up getting a B in the class, but that was only from studying 12 hours straight for the final test.
Sophomore
The Good
Problems of Corrections
As someone wrote on ratemyprofessors.com, going to this class was like going to an "informative comedy club." One class before a test, the professor said "I wrote up the test last night. I think it is pretty good, but I was high when I wrote it." Aside from that, the class really opened my eyes to the severe problems that exist within our justice system. To no surprise, an emphasis of the class was the utter stupidity of the punishment for drug offenders. As the population of people in jail continues to rise (often for non-violent crimes), I continue to remember that great class and wish things could be different within the system.
The Bad
History 101
Hey, I have a great idea. Lets jam thousands of years of history into one semester! Let's make it even better by having it in a huge lecture hall with hundreds of kids! Ooo, and you know what would top it off? Having a horrible professor teach it, with an incomprehensible lecture style.
Junior
The good
All of my second semester classes in London
I took Appreciation of Music, Art and Architecture in Context, Studies in Drama, Early British History, and Modern British History. Each class was amazing because we actually went to the places we were learning about. In the drama class, we saw a play every week; in Art History, a museum every week. It was great to not simply be lectured to, but to be able to actively participate in learning outside of a lecture hall.
The bad
Climactic Processes
I had to take this for one of my four science requirements. Again, teaching a class in a giant lecture hall is never a good idea, and is definitely not conducive to a good learning environment. I learned absolutely nothing, and it was always a huge struggle to stay awake. To top it off, the idiot professor put all the notes online, and simply read straight from the notes in class, making it extremely easy to skip class and not miss anything. To top it off, the accompanied lab was taught by an inept grad student who made us walk around in the freezing cold measuring who knows what. I was lucky to pass that class.
Senior
The good
20th Century France
Taken during my last semester for my last requirement for my History minor, this class seemed destined to be boring. But I learned a tremendous amount about French modern history from films to racial tensions. When the riots outside of Paris occurred earlier this year, I was not surprised given their history. And with the recent murder of a young Jewish man there, it echoes the injustices committed against Alfred Dreyfus because of anti-Semitism.
The bad
Film Theory: Film+Comics
What should have been an awesome class sucked because of the professor. He was young, and thought he was cool, but had absolutely no concept on how to lecture. His lectures were all over the place, making it impossible to take notes, and very difficult to write papers. Despite this, I do find comics a lot more interesting than I used to.
If you have made it down this far, I am impressed as I'm sure no one cares about the classes I took in college. In missing college and classes so much, I am beginning to wonder more and more whether grad school is in my future.
