I really hate to pick on CMU, it being my alma mater and all, but today the Post-Gazette--on Page One above the fold, no less--featured a story about a new course being offered at Carnegie Mellon. Is it "Financial Accounting (and How to Avoid Ponzi Schemes)"? Nope. How about "Environmental Engineering With Green Technology"? No way. "Robot Technology and Human Interaction"? Not a chance.
It's (drum roll, please) "Sneakerology 101", or as I call it, the 101st reason not to give my alma mater any money. The Post-Gazette article enthusiastically reports about the newest course offering, "delv[ing] into the impact of sneakers on identity and culture."
Now, I love my Chuck Taylor's just as much as the next person, but a course solely (sorry I couldn't resist) devoted to what's essentially gym shoes? I guess the joke is on me and everyone else who thinks this is completely ridiculous, because students are lining up around the block to take it.
Students in the class, self-labeled "sneakerheads", lap up such inciteful information "as early hip-hop roots,...shoe design and technology, and the effect of boutiques and limited-edition releases." Students' final assignment is to design their own sneaker--and write a description about it. And I thought Foucault was tough!
Field trips include such intellectually-stimulating adventures as pre-dawn trips to stand in line at Foot Locker to assess...a new shoe release. Class debates included which Air Jordan sneaker Michael Jordan wore in the 1985-1986 season. Now that's useful information to banter about in those pesky I'm-about-to-graduate-and-need-a-job interviews!
I suppose the only logical next step is to put the shoe on the other foot, so to speak, and give the ladies a chance to learn all about their favorite footwear: the high heel. I'm imagining field trips to Nordstrom to view the fall line of Manolo Blahnik's, stimulating lectures by physicians who discuss bunions and hammer toes, and viewings of "Sex and the City" to examine the idle lives of rich thirty-something women and their shallow materialistic shoe fetishes. Any takers?
ah-- thats hysterical. have CMU's standards dipped? this sounds like filler material for an urban studies major at pitt (dabbled in it, ran away screaming, in case anyone out there retorts violently in US's defense).
ReplyDeletei would actually register for the 'high heels' class, if not for the sake of learning, for the opportunity to ogle and mingle, then. and sure, id put on high heels at the deaprtment's christmas party!
funny blog entry!
-g from dc (but how much longer we shall see)