NOTE: The assignment below is just for the Annotated Bibliography. I'll give you another handout for Conversation Paper #2, though it is basically what I wrote below. I just wanted you to understand the ultimate assignment so it could help guide your hunt for sources.
In Chapter 46 of Station Eleven, Jeevan is discussing
the subject of Year Twenty education with some friends. One of them remarks,
“Does it still make sense to teach kids about the way things were?” And
Jeevan’s wife, Daria, responds, “I suppose the question is, does knowing these
things make them more or less happy?” (260-270).
So there is where you come in: I want you to imagine that you’re
designing the first college for the Post-Flu Age. Now that we’re in a new
world, we can start over again, with a completely blank slate. We really get to
decide what would make the new generation of students “more or less happy”—and
what would truly educate them for the future. So what should an education look
like in a “perfect world”? This is your chance to imagine what education should
be and what it could be rather than what it is today. So consider
what works about the modern university, what should be preserved, and what
seems broken. Discuss at least one thing you would KEEP from the past—either a
class, a field of study, or a method of teaching, and at least one thing you
would CHANGE—again, the same types of things. You should also identify the
overall philosophy that you think a university should embody: is it simply
preparing students for careers and employment? Or is it to make them more
responsible and educated citizens? Or is to teach values, morals, and ethics?
THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
To help you do this, you need to do
research since this isn’t science fiction—this is a big conversation going on
right now. Many schools are drastically changing how education works, what
classes are taught, and who teaches them. Find other voices to respond to, and
put them in conversation with your own ideas and Station Eleven. To make
sure you do this sooner rather than later, I want you to turn in an Annotated
Bibliography, which is a list of 5-6 sources that you found through
research to help you discuss this conversation. The Bibliography should list
each source alphabetically (according to MLA format, or whichever you prefer)
and then provide a brief 2-3 sentence explanation of why this article is useful
to your discussion and/or what its main ideas are. DO NOT take this summary
from the article’s abstract—be sure to skim or read the article yourself and
explain briefly what the article is about. This is due in ONE
WEEK on Friday, April 6th by 5pm .
And yes, you can use the article we just discussed in class (but you don’t have
to).
Example: Strauss,
Valerie. “A University of Wisconsin campus pushes plan
to
drop 13 majors.” The Washington
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news. Accessed 29 March 2018 .
This article is useful to me because it discusses the
university’s argument for making a very controversial decision—scrapping most
humanities majors in favor of more “lucrative” or “hands-on” career fields. Even
though many claim this goes against the very fabric of what a university stands
for (character building rather than mere job creation), the university feels
that this will better meet “the state’s workforce needs.” The article also
explains that this is part of a trend in Wisconsin
politics which has tried to undermine a liberal arts education under Governor
Scott Walker’s leadership.
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