Tuesday, October 14, 2008

My First Course

Due to generals, I procrastinated on a number of things, and other things are just rushing up without me having needed to procrastinate on them. The most interesting and uncertain task has to do with the fact I will begin teaching my own classes next quarter (January). I have been assigned "Problems in the Contemporary World", a topics course that can be about pretty much anything I want. Most people make this class about their specialty, but I currently lack a specialty, so that may be hard. Course descriptions are due on Thursday, so I better decide quickly! What do I know enough about to be comfortable teaching? Do I want to try and write my own syllabus or borrow someone else's? There are about ten available to use online, but none of them jump out as something I really want to teach.

So, let me ask you this. I will make this my first comment challenge. If you were a college student, what would you want to take a comparative politics course on? What is it, politically, that you would want to learn about other countries?

5 comments:

Emily said...

I think a course that discusses Aristotle's "The Politics" and how/if/how not/etc. his theories are relevant today in the ever changing, worldwide political arena. I think you would attract quite a few philosophy majors to this class ;)

I also really enjoy classes that discuss how religon and politics "work" together.

Unknown said...

First, congrats on passing your oral exams.

As for course selection, I've always liked comparative constitutionalism; i.e., how different governments set up their legal structures and resolve disputes between citizens and government and within government. But that's probably just me being a law geek.

jannypie said...

those people are smarter than i am, and i dunno if it answers your question but i took a class in college that discussed cultural relativism and i loved it

Sarah Dee said...

I would like a course that talks about HOW countries got to the poltical systmes they have now. Kinda how they evovled and the history behind them.

Anonymous said...

maybe starting by DEFINING comparative politics is what I would need... or maybe just defining politics. spelling it even.

sorry, i just know so ridiculously little about this stuff that I don't even know what one would HOPE to learn from such a course... Not that it will stop people from taking it (I have NO idea what quantitative analytical chemistry was about, but somehow I got a B in the 3 credit course WITH a lab...) Ok, i'll stop rambling now.