By Kofi Frimpong
Guest Contributor
March 24, 2006
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Kofi Frimpong
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Once in a while, a revolution appears that changes how things are done, because … well, because it is a revolution and that is what it does. It change things. Some revolutions start off as a tiny flame that sets a forest ablaze, while others originate as rain of fire.
Of these two revolutions described metaphorically above, I believe that it is about time the men and women of Milligan start a revolution.
I am not asking that the Buffaloes turn the school upside down, because that will require more work than our muscles can afford, considering the myriad of things that can use some extreme makeover. These include the sports program, chapel and convocation procedures, and Webb dormitory, just to mention a few.
One area where I recommend a revolution is in the humanities program. When I came to Milligan, I was told that I had to take 24 credits of humanities even though I was a biology major. I assumed that the objective of the humanities program, as the name hints, was to help students know what it means to be human. To my astonishment, all that I have been squeezed through was a bunch of facts.
I admit there have been times that I have learned about how others viewed human nature. But the mere idea of facts being facts overshadows the student’s application of the course to real life. This is so because students fry their brain cells trying to memorize facts which usually cover about 70 percent of the test, so that by the time they get to the application part, intellectually known as the essay, their brains are saying, “No more information admitted.”
“These skills (learned from Humanities 202W) are supposed to benefit individuals in their careers, political responsibilities and their personal interactions with others,” as quoted in the Humanities 202 syllabus. Hmmm …. These are very touching and well-structured words, but I do not know how these goals are being achieved. For example, in Humanities 202W, we have had to write two analytical essays, which, by the way, is more of a report paper. An analytical paper is an essay in which the student reads an article and presents objective findings from the author. According to Humanities 202W, the student’s point of view is prohibited from being in the paper. By forbidding the student’s opinion, the teacher, I believe, is saying, “Knowing the facts is more important than what you—the student—believes.”
The argumentative writing class is supposed to help the student establish a well-balanced foundation of point of views in the world of telling opinions. But I believe this course has strayed from this objective. The course is far from reaching this goal, because only one essay out of the five required essays is about what the student believes. The other four have to do with the students reporting what other people have said. I am not saying that students should be required to read and write about what others say. I am simply pleading that teachers find a way to emphasize more on the student applying what they know to issues of the world, rather than just reporting, as in the analytical essays.