A front page article in The Westfield News announces a new class for next year at our Westfield State University about pop star Taylor Swift called “Look What You Made Me Learn: Swiftology” (“WSU Students Will Be ‘Ready for It’ with Taylor Swift Class,” March 14). This is the type of course that will come under the General Education requirements that are supposed to prepare a student to help them decide what and how to pursue for their major course of study.
A higher education course like “Swiftology” makes basket weaving seem like a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. The teacher of this class highlights some of the points that will be discussed in this class beyond Ms. Swift’s musical talents and success. How she relates to media literacy, gender, race, politics (both left and right), and her “privileged white girl” status. The article wants to support this course as it says big-time universities like Harvard and Stanford have also offered similar Swiftology-type courses, as a goal WSU should pursue.
With my limited public school education, which ended 50 years ago, I don’t need a crystal ball or a million-dollar grant from the government to research how this new type of academic preparation will play out. This course will only prepare the student how to live in mom and dad’s basement at age 30 and beyond, because it is mush.
