Let’s Talk About Global Studies, Shall We?

I wrote this about a week and a half ago immediately after taking the third Global Studies examination. Read on, it’s pretty fun:

So we all have to take Global Studies. We must attend this class everyday while at sea (though many people DO skip it, since it’s so easy to just stay in your cabin and not come out). You’d think that traveling around the world would provide an easy backdrop for this class be a wonderful experience. Well you thought wrong.

I’m not sure if other students have commented about this class in their own blogs, but I’d like to throw in my two cents concerning this course.

We just had the third test yesterday, and I must say that I’m not doing so well. Now keep in mind, I’d consider myself a good student. I make the Dean’s List every semester; I’m a member of my school’s honor society; I’ve received a few English/writing awards, and I usually take a full workload every semester (just last semester I had to take 7 senior-level classes, because I’m doing this study abroad and can only take 4 while on ship). I’m not bragging; I’m just trying to make the point that I’d consider myself a good student and do plenty of work each semester, but even though I’ve studied for every one of these Global Studies tests, I haven’t done well on them.

Why?

Well first of all, the class itself is pretty horrible. Mr. Dan Christie. He’s the man of the hour on this ship, for he’s the one who teaches this class. He’s a psychology major, and he teaches the class like a psychology course. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a nice guy, and he’s intelligent, but when it comes down to it, he shouldn’t be teaching a class like this. Not only is he a psychology major, but he’s poor public speaker, especially when he’s required to hold the attention of over 700 students, faculty, and staff. Maybe a history or social science professor should have helmed the responsibilities of this course? Just an idea.

Some of the other professors that speak time to time are really good speakers. Heck, my English professor hasn’t spoken once in Global Studies, but he’s an unbelievable speaker and could easily hold the attention of all the students. Even many of the interport lecturers (people from the specific countries and lecture about the specifics in each country) aren’t very good and talk about things that don’t/won’t pertain to us. For example, on our way to Vietnam, the Vietnamese speaker had an entire lecture on how one can make successful business deals in Vietnam. Granted that’s great and interesting for a business student, how does it pertain to the rest of us (especially when we only have 3 days between Malaysia and Vietnam to learn as much as possible about this country)? I honestly have no idea what the Chinese interport lecturer was talking about today. He skipped around so much and didn’t talk about ANYTHING relevant. It’s a waste of our time.

Like I said, we had our third test yesterday. Each professor who lectures apparently writes his/her own questions for the test. This makes for a very imbalanced/incoherent test. Not only that, but the answers are always worded differently than the notes that were taken during class time. That wouldn’t be a big deal if it was just a normal class, but when we’re bombarded so much information everyday, AND we’re learning it all when traveling in-between countries, it’s very difficult to memorize everything.

Finally, what ticks me off the MOST, is the fact that the information taught in this class really isn’t relevant to us at all. Our lessons should concern issues and elements of the countries that we SHOULD know before arriving. So many times when wondering around countries, I learn something new and think, hmmm, maybe we should have been taught that in Global Studies.

For example, after traveling to Mauritius, we spent an entire day on CORAL REEFS. Coral reefs? This isn’t a science class. Another day we had three of the female professors talk about “gender studies.” As soon as they said “gender studies,” and I saw these three women, I KNEW it was going to be the same, old, generic, feminist critiques on how all women are persecuted and hated around the world. Don’t get me wrong, I’m for equality and care very much about issues surrounding women today such, but I hate the fact that they just used the lesson as feminist propaganda, rather than concentrating on the facts and issues that may help us understand the issue in more depth.

This class seriously COULD HAVE been incredibly powerful, very educational, and easily could have been the greatest, most meaningful class any of us have ever taken. Traveling around the world while learning about the countries we’ll be exploring…that sounds awesome. Instead, we get Dan Christie saying awkward things, professors bombarding us with their own beliefs, and every other student sitting around bored to death as we discuss “structural violence,” “negative peace,” and other random subjects that just don’t have any context.

So yeah. I wrote that awhile ago, but still hold roughly the same opinions. I also have a problem with the pre-ports for the last couple of countries. Through most of the trip we’ve had a cultural and logistical pre-ports the two nights before entering each country; each meeting was mandatory and lasted an hour each. These pre-ports provided us with the basic information that we needed to know for each country, but for the past two countries we’ve only had one pre-port that lasts alittle over an hour each. The reasons they combined both pre-ports was because, OBVIOUSLY, there’s not too much culture in Vietnam and China.

Seriously, why rob us from valuable information because A) the instructors/staff are too lazy to create two separate presentations for us or B) they think that we don’t care enough? Not even that, but the information they give us is alittle ridiculous. For example, during the China preport, they cut out the interport lecturers presentation of the “Dos and Don’ts for China,” but still had a 10 minute presentation on the pop culture/music around China. Hmm…maybe, just MAYBE those do’s and don’ts could be relevant to us all.

They think that we don’t want to sit through and learn all of this stuff, but most of us do! Most of the “7^th deckers” don’t really care about this valuable info because they certainly have more important things to do.

Ok, enough negativity. We have less than a month left, so I’m honestly trying to appreciate everything and remember as much as I can while on this ship. It seriously has become a home to me, and I’ll definitely miss it. I apologize if there was too much bitching in this post, but I just finished this test and needed to vent.