College course names changed to kiddy names to attract students

A reader sent this, from Phi Beta Cons:

Kids in Charge [Jane S. Shaw]

The Boston Globe reported Tuesday that faculty are revising the titles of their courses to draw more students. The leading example was a German course at Boston College previously known as “German Literature of the High Middle Ages.” The professor changed the title to “Knights, Castles, and Dragons” and tripled the number of students who signed up.

Sorry, but to me, the phrase “High Middle Ages” is pretty exciting, along with phrases like “The Dark Ages,” “the Roman Empire,” “Greek tragedy,” “the Ancient Near East,” and “American literature in the Nineteenth Century.” Such subjects don’t need to be renamed with video game names to make them interesting.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 10, 2009 12:53 PM | Send