What is the best course you have ever taken. I liked the african history

[applegrove]

class I had in third year university. The professor announced that since we knew nothing about Africa we would be reading African novels all year long. It was wonderful. We would read a novel that touched on some aspect of Africa...then get a history lecture on what was really going on at the time in regards to those issues.

[Tikki]

1. A Pacific Islands Culture class...

Professor was in PNG pre & war & post. Unique perspective and
an incredibly interesting lecture series.



Tikki

[applegrove]

2. That does sound interesting. I know so little of Asian history. I've always wanted to know more.

[Mendocino]

3. Geology of the Great Lakes Region

1976, my freshman year.

[Skittles]

4. I had an African studies class

taught by the mother of a Rage Against the Machine guitarist - awesome!

[7wo7rees]

5. Public Behavior of Groups

Studied soccer riots, equal rights marches, and Kent State/Jackson State.

[MiddleFingerMom]

6. Teaching Art in the Elementary School... took two different levels...

.
.
.
... but both were basically same class. One day a week book-larnin', one day a week
hands-on arts-and-crafts. How FUN!!!!
.
Learned to make paper-mache "balloon" puppets -- which eventually translated into
the 7-foot penis costumes I'd make for Halloween. Special effects which got better
year-after-year. Won every Halloween contest for 10 years in a row.
.
.
.

[murielm99]

7. Comparative Christianity.

I learned about all the different denominations and, as much as possible in a semester, their histories. We had an overview of Catholicism and the Orthodox church, too. It was very interesting.

[rurallib]

8. Religion in Human Culture

it was taught by a professor who had grown up in Nazi Germany. This was during the height of the Vietnam war, so while it was a historical course it was quite relevant.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. Nature and Function of Religion.

the intro course in the religion dept. at the Presbyterian University I went to. Everybody had to take 6 hours of religion.

What is a religion? What is a symbol? What is a ritual? Why do we have religion?

It blew my mind. I spent 6 weeks thinking, "What is this man talking about?"
It finally soaked in. The prof has a Th.D. from Princeton.

We read Notes from the Underground, Freud, Tillich, Mircea Eliade, Jacob Needleman, Rudolf Otto, Jung, Feuerbach, on and on.

The prof also knows many ancient languages. Hebrew, Greek, Amharic, Aramaic, Latin, Linear B.

Blew my mind and was well worth it.

[Odin2005]

21. Nitpick: Linear B was just an early form of Greek.

:hi:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. He could read clay tablets. Babylonian I think. Cuneiform.

Clay tablets.

[Enrique]

10. that wasn't Harold Scheub at Wisconsin, by any chance?

if so, i'm jealous because I couldn't get in his class. ;-)

My favorite was a Genetics class where he took a historical approach, starting with Mendel's peas probably, and also emphasized the important role of female scientists in genetics studies, which I probably wouldn't have known about otherwise.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

19. No, this was in San Antonio.

Dr. Francisco Garcia-Treto, known as Dr. Garcia. His father was the minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Havana, Cuba. He said the natives didn't like protestants and dumped their garbage on the church steps.

Trinity University.

One day he came in with a stack of Bibles in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc. and put them on his desk.

then he said, "It is said in the Talmud, that there is a difference between a scholar and an ASS loaded down with books!!"

We all died laughing and then I thought, "Well at least I know what I am now, and it's NOT a scholar!!"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Odin2005]

22. !!!!!!!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[bbinacan]

11. Military History-Civil War

The highlight was a 4 day field trip touring battlefields in Virginia.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Medieval history during my freshman year at the University of Minnesota

It was a huge lecture course, but I was in an honors section, so we had weekly meetings with the professor every week.

It started with the Germanic tribes and the late Roman Empire and went up to the Renaissance. Fascinating stuff, especially since my family had spent five weeks in Europe just a year before.

[Lady President]

13. Latin American Literature

It was an elective course that just sounded interesting. The focus was on the mystical-realism style of writing.

[Kat45]

14. German Expressionism in its European Context

The professor, Sol Gittleman, was the best lecturer I've ever experienced. He made everything so interesting, I even sought out and attended other lectures he gave after I was out of college. The class covered art, literature, theater, movies. We saw the movies Metropolis and Triumph of the Will. It was my first exposure to Munch's "The Scream." I learned a lot about Weimar Germany, which I was not at all familiar with.

It was a large class, a survey class, but it was excellent. Interestingly it was known as a 'gut class,' which meant it was easy to get a good grade. Because of that, lots of kids took the class and because of the professor, lots of them learned a lot despite themselves.

[livetohike]

15. History of the Far East - took it in college and found it

fascinating.

[undeterred]

16. Theology of Personality

DSMIII was the "Bible", and almost everyone in the class was a therapist or a pastoral counselor. Really learned a lot.

[CherokeeDem]

17. Anthropology

I took it in a summer session. It was an 8am class and it was fantastic. Wonderful professor,his lecture style was articulate, funny and captivating, very interesting material, I couldn't wait to get up and rush to class, it was like an issue of National Geographic every class.

[handmade34]

18. Transformative Power of Ritual

in Seminary... life altering!!

[Odin2005]

20. Intro to Historical Linguistics.

[Tess49]

23. Clinical anatomy with cadaver lab. n/t

[PufPuf23]

24. Several

1960s High School - Sophomore English with Mr. Louie Knight at Athenian School

He had us write for homework each day a "15 minuter" - cursive writing for 15 minutes if just the alphabet over and over but better if we thought, to get and maintain an athletic writing ability (this was pre-pc). Each week we had to read and write a book report and be prepared for 5 minutes of class defense. The first semester he gave us writings from Mark Twain, Joseph Campbell, Mailer, Kerouac, JD Salinger, etc. and the second semester we could chose our own books. He had us make up a religion for a semester project.

I really liked studio art the same year but never took art again as I was a "Math and Science" oriented student (despite I found more pleasure in literature and the arts). When my parents were gone, I found a letter to my parents from art teacher Mr. Devivi talking about my talent and how he looked forward to me for two more years in studio design. I never again took an art class and did not read or know of the feedback to my parents for 30 years and after they both had passed on.

1970s Undergrad - Use of Soil Information in Land Use Planning with Dr McColl at UC Berkeley. The course was an elective at my degree as a BS in Forest Science; however, had I taken the 6 week soil summer field course rather than the 10 week Forestry summer camp, I could have filed for either Forest Science or Soil Science degrees. Second was Forest Ecology with Dr. Ed Stone.

1980s MBA - Strategic Marketing with Dr. Aaker just over Entrepreneurship taught by a team at UC Berkeley.

Strategic Marketing was an elective and a most useful course in content that gave a transcendent framework for thinking about commerce, Dr. Aacker once collapsed to the floor in the seminar back in 86-87 but I saw him recently on MSNBC as an expert in Branding. I am glad he is still alive and respected.

Entrepreneurship was a competitive entrance elective and I met and worked with famous people and made bad decisions for my heart and futire life. I went into corporate mgmt consulting, specifically due diligence and project development for timber industry transactions, mergers and acquisitions, wood waste energy, and policy or lobbying for public or private sector = lots of Wall Street and European Bank work. I was sucked in originally by Dr Ian McHarg (who was a tool to greed heads in his old age) and then intoxicated by what it meant when I called and visited industry -- they were for sale or there would likely be a major change in management. I collected WSJ Tombstones from the deals.

I was told to wear my best suit and come to the UC Faculty Club for drinks and discussion. I met with Dr McHarg, Dr Stewart (one of the profs of Entrepreneurship), a principal in a mgmt consultancy (that I would work for and quit when offered a partnership), and a Dane who was the CEO of a Danish company nationalized out of Sabah, Indonesia. They would pay me more to look at 50,000 to 300,000 acre tracts in a weekend than I made a month as a GS-11 Fed. I wrote the company business plan based upon a Master Limited Partnership structure (killed by 1989 tax reform) and went to work for the Wall Street mgmt consultant where I worked in forest industry, forest policy, appraisal, and alternative energy. Later one day I walked into the office and quit. I came from a humble beginning and considered forestry a misunderstood by design art and science-- to the degree that I would and could go purposely into the belly of the beast out of my idealism and had been cornered into what I perceived as corrupt.

My worst course as an MBA at Cal was MBA Macroeconomics taught by Janet Yellen that was in the Clinton WH and is now Vice Chair of the CEQ and former Chair o the San Francisco branch of the Federal Reserve.

I could survive comfortably but pointlessly when I quit. I had met a former OSU professor that was Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under GHWB and during the Northern Spotted Owl controversy (I made 3 presentations before Congressional committees over the Northern Spotted Owl paid for by the State of California and spoke my heart and and best technology and knowledge of the industry, ecology, and impacted communities).

1990s PhD - Advanced Forest Ecology with Dr. Newton. I was next employed as a lecturer in forest economics at OSU in large part because of Dr. Beuter (former OSU Prof and Deputy Secretary of Agriculture) and Dr. Stone and their faith in my mind and knowledge and idealism. Dr. Newton only wrote one text book about the use of herbicides in forestry but he was an ecologist His field ecology course had the goal of having one determine the past of forest stands or landscapes for a decade to several hundred years and predict the future over a similar time frame given actions and probabilities.

I quit the OSU job and PhD Natural Resource Economics PhD for family reasons. I needed to return to home in CA because my 86 year old father took ill and passed on. I was his contract hospice (with county hospice help) and Executor of what became a complex Estate because of corruption initiated by my BIL, who was a 30 year Chief of Police, Promise Keeper; and GOP. Said BIL never said a rude word to me in over 30 years until 15 minutes after my Dad passed on and hospice nurses and the mortuary left with Dad's body. My Dad warned me and I did not listen. That was 1996. I divorced my wife by my choice in 2000. Since 2003, I have been a mountain hippie and recluse in my rural and remote home town with chronic health problems.

My opportunities to obtain quality education essentially for free and my first choice every time I faced a life change was a tremendous gift. My family never understood my drive nor motivation nor talent. Now I find my education and wide experience a hindrance to keep to myself.

Excuse my melancholy please.

[HopeHoops]

25. Complex Analysis, but I have to give a nod to Real Analysis BECAUSE...

On my transcript it was listed as "REAL ANAL". I told everyone that's because it had be bent over all semester. But seriously, Complex Analysis was a much harder and much more fun class. Some of the homework problems would take HOURS just to figure out the key to the lock.

[YankeyMCC]

26. History of Technology and Engineering in College

[av8rdave]

27. Astronautical Engineering

Dealt with orbital mechanics mostly. Seemed intimidating at first, but the principles and math were surprisingly simple. It was fascinating.

[bookworm65t]

28. Christian Marriage

I had to take 4 courses in religion and/or phiosophy. My then-boyfriend and I were seriously considering getting married, and by the end of the semester, I knew that I didn't want to marry this man. This course saved me a lot of grief.

[mysuzuki2]

29. comparative vertebrate anatomy

cutting things up was such fun!

[distantearlywarning]

31. A weird astrophysics elective as an undergrad

Can't remember the exact title of the course, but it was something like, "Theoretical Astrophysics In Modern Science Fiction". Which sounds completely flaky, but it was actually totally awesome and surprisingly relevant to the "real world". The professor was a young guy, loved teaching, every lecture was fascinating, and I read some cool literature too. I never skipped a class session. I also took Intro to Astronomy with the same professor, and loved that course too.

I am currently a Ph.D student in the social sciences, by the way, but I've always said that if I had to choose a different major, I would have gone with Astronomy, mostly because of that one professor who made the topic so interesting.

[LibDemAlways]

32. California History - The prof. tackled the subject by examining

a variety of controversial issues in the history of the state. No boring timelines or dry recitation of facts. Most interesting college course I ever took.