Henry is allowed to take one extra college class per semester for no additional cost—but if you want to take the Extra Class, you can’t sign up for it until everyone else has completed their own normal course registration, which is fair. It’s extra, so there is no pressure to meet a requirement; and in fact, you are encouraged to take something outside your major. (Henry is currently an English major, likely planning to combine it with a teaching degree.) His college offers a class about COWS, and he’d wanted to take that, but it was full; he’d thought about taking Art History or Intro to Music, but both of those are common ways to satisfy the arts requirement so they were all full. (This is one of the primary difficulties of taking the Extra Class: sometimes there are no good classes left.)
He asked all the people in our house (all seven of us are here right now) what college courses we’d taken that we’d recommend. I mentioned a class I’d taken on English words from Latin and Greek Roots; I really liked it, but I think that was in large part because I liked the professor and the way he taught—and because I’d already had several years of Latin, so it was super easy for me. I took a class on Chinese culture because it was the only one that fit in my schedule, and that one was similarly a success, again because of the professor. I found my psychology classes fun; I had to take Into to Psychology to meet the core requirement, and then I took another psychology class that all the business majors had to take; I don’t remember what it was called, but it was sort of a marketing/psychology crossover and it was pretty fun. I liked Probability & Statistics a lot more than I’d thought I would; I liked Intro to Political Science a lot more than I’d thought I would. But I don’t know that I would have taken either of those as extras.
Henry’s siblings recommended any film/music appreciation classes, or any history/culture-of-a-particular-country (whether or not you THINK you are interested in that country) classes. Rob recommended taking an introduction to computer programming class, not so much for the actual coding skills but for learning that way of thinking about things. Elizabeth recommended taking one of the hands-on art classes, especially because those tend to be pass/fail at the early levels, and this is an extra class so it’s nice to have the freedom to let it be the lower priority. I overheard Edward recommending a class on TEXTILES, which is not a class I knew existed, or perhaps I misheard.
Immediately I wanted to ask YOU. What classes do you particularly remember from your school years? What classes did you like more than you thought you would? What classes do you think you would you like to take, if you could take one for no (additional) cost? What classes do you think would be VALUABLE to take, as a not-your-major add-on?
And/or, if this question is more fun: which classes did you THINK you would like, but they TANKED? I started college wanting to be an English teacher, and my first English literature class was so boring and awful I switched majors (ODE TO A GRECIAN URN: NO THANK YOU FOREVER). I took a Philosophy of Friendship class with a professor I’d loved for Intro to Philosophy, and the class was tedious, plodding, pretentious, empty, forced.
I wholeheartedly concur with the Art History recommendation. It has enhanced my understanding of culture, politics, and made every museum visit in my life (voluntary or not) so much more enjoyable. Honestly, so unexpectedly practical!
I am thrilled to hear he is majoring in English. We need more humanities scholars who see stories in the world and understand the human condition. Yay!
I took 3 classes during two different summers, needing to make up credits after disastrous regular semesters. One was on the main campus I usually attended and two were at the satellite campus in my hometown. Only one was taught by a conventional tenured professor. All 3 ended up among my very favorites: comparative religion, taught by a local Episcopalian minister; sociology 101, taught by a grad student; and comparative politics, which was in my major.
Comparative religion had been recommended by my AP English teacher, and easily had the biggest impact on my life. For the final project we had to attend services or interview representatives of 3 different faith traditions. I spoke to a Catholic priest and a leader in the Jewish community, then went to a Unitarian Universalist service, which blew my dang mind. There *were* hippies, activists, feminists, vegetarians, and queers in the Southern metro area I grew up in; I just hadn’t known where they were. Even before I walked in the door, the bumper stickers in the parking lot let me know I was in the right place. It took many years, but eventually I returned to that UU community and got very involved in it.
As an English major (who very much uses the degree every day) I took a Medical Anthropology class that was absolutely fascinating. Also a Comparative Literature class that actually provided a slightly different way of thinking about literature and was very cool.
When I was looking at graduate schools, Cornell had a bongo drum class and that had a cathartic feeling to my over-scheduled engineering undergrad self. I ended up at UC Berkeley though and took a class called Structural Reliability which *sounded* important to a structural engineer but turned out to be an advanced probability and statistics class that I nearly failed.
I am taking Henry’s interest in the course on cows as an indication that he would like to know more random facts about something seemingly mundane, and if he searches the course catalog there might be something else along those lines just waiting (History of Canada! Biology of Fishes! Sociology of National Parks!)
If that’s not actually what he wants, he should think about what he does want – a class where he is likely to meet and get to know interesting people? Get his mind bent a little by a whole different way of understanding the world? Get to see if he is any good at something he has not previously tried?
To answer the second part of the question, I took a State Politics course. It was interesting and fun and I highly recommend knowing more than the bare minimum about how politics works in your home state (or any state). But then I tried to take Politics of Railroads and didn’t like the professor and ended up dropping it.
My college had a class on the culture and history of surfing! I never took it but I was always intrigued by the concept.
Oooh what a fun post.
I majored in engineering. One summer I picked up a community college class: History of Film. It was cool to learn about early film technology. We watched a movie every week. I am not a huge movie person, like at all, so this exposed me to some classics I otherwise never would have watched.
To finish this required history sequence I also did history of criminology or something like that. Interesting and easy, but I don’t remember much this *cough* many years later.
My bonus extra class was in my otherwise light load last semester: ballet. Intro, of course. I wanted to love it, but unfortunately far too many students in the class had actual years of training, (and must have found it dull), so I felt a bit out of place. I wonder if it was actually challenging for the teacher to have this incredible range?? (However I did go on to take a good number of years of adult classes!)
I took a class called Geography of Food in undergrad. I thought it would be a fun way to learn about different international cuisines, but it was more about the ethics of the agriculture industry. It was interesting and informative and I’m glad I took it! But it was also a bummer. (One time the professor’s husband came in to do a guest lecture about different types of beer from around the world, and the professor cheerfully told us that it would be the only lecture this semester that wouldn’t make us feel bad.)
I was a theatre major, so I took a lot of theatre classes, but I especially loved musical theatre — I think I took it three times. I also really enjoyed theatre tech. We had the choice to focus on costumes, lighting, or scenery. I wanted to do costumes but it was either full or incompatible with my schedule, so I did scenery and absolutely loved it. And I took a Shakespeare class I loved so much that I went on to write two masters’ theses on Shakespeare.
Zoology was really cool and interesting! There was an optional one-unit lab that went along with it, and I got to touch an octopus one time. And we got to go on field trips to the aquarium and the zoo!
I thought I’d like astronomy, but it turns out that I am not naturally adept at that type of science.
I’m currently working on my paralegal certificate at a community college (mostly because it’s necessary to get promoted at my job), and I’m finding it a lot more interesting than expected. I thought law classes would be boring and dry, and they sometimes are, but mostly they give me a lot to think about and I find them challenging in a good way. (I especially enjoyed the electives I took this past summer: one on intellectual property law and one on trials and evidence.) Plus, I think a working knowledge of the US legal system is very valuable in These Current Times.
Oh, and RE: the textiles class — my mom MAJORED in textiles. Or Home Ec with an emphasis in textiles, if I recall correctly. I’m not sure if any colleges even offer Home Ec as a major anymore, but I bet some of the classes are/were pretty fun.