What exactly is life like here at Stanford? I take four classes, each of which has different components and requirements.
CS1006X: Computer Programming (Accelerated)
- Lectures, three times a week, recite material from the C++ textbook with flair, pizazz, slides, and household objects. They are archived to the Web. (I usually go to them in person.)
- Section, once a week, goes over the material in a small group, mainly by going around the circle with each person answering a question. (Even though I know the material, answering such questions is still nerve-wracking. Since I don’t need the help, I don’t attend section.)
- Assignments, once a week, require you to implement a very clearly defined program. Usually, they even give you a program that does everything your program is supposed to do, so you can copy its behavior.
- A midterm and a final test your speed and skill by having you write programs and answer questions about them on paper.
I moderately enjoy this class. The lecturer, Merhan Sahami, is a lot of fun. He tries to make the material “come alive” with props and even costumes. I know most of the programming stuff, but I still enjoy doing the assignments.
Sociology 1: Intro to Sociology
- Readings, usually about two chapters twice a week, consist mostly of sociological case studies so we can learn by example. There are also optional readings (one chapter twice a week) in a textbook which is more explicit about the concepts and filled with nifty stories and facts. (I always do both readings.)
- Lectures, twice a week, are only tangentially related to the assigned readings and outline the major theoretical points of the class. Sometimes a “response prompt” — a graph or chart or something — is shown and little pieces of paper are handed out. If you write something in response on them, you get a better grade. This is mostly to encourage/reward attendance. (I always attend lectures.)
- Sections, once every other week, are where we read Calvin & Hobbes and watch The Simpsons. (I still attend because I think it’s part of your grade. I feel scared to speak up.)
- A midterm and a final test whether you remember concepts from class (AFAICT, the questions on the book could be answered by simply paying attention to in-class discussion about the book).
- One 5 page paper at the end of the quarter asks you to compare the entrance exam for Japan’s high schools (we read the book Japan’s High Schools) with America’s SAT (we read an excerpt from The Big Test, a book about the SAT). It’s due tomorrow. (I wrote mine on how Japan shows us just how bad America really is; I’ll post it with comments when I get it back.)
I love this class, with the exception of sections, which are terrible. The stuff we read is pretty good. The teacher is great — lively and entertaining — and the content fascinates me. I spend lots of time after class chatting with the teacher about things and we seem to be becoming friends, even though she doesn’t know my name. (She even talked to me about the weather.)
IHUM (Introduction to the Humanities) 63: Freedom, Equality, Difference
- Readings, about one book a week, consist of Great Works (Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Ellison’s Invisible Man) and papers (Sunstein’s “The Anti-Caste Principle”, MacKinnon’s “Sexual Politics of the First Amendment”). (I think both are pretty bad and have gave up reading them when I discovered it didn’t matter.)
- Lectures, twice a week, discuss the readings. (I’ve stopped attending these too.)
- Sections, twice a week, involve sort of generalized discussion about the issues raised. Mainly arguments over things like affirmative action. (I attend these and talk quite a bit.)
- Two 3-5 page papers are assigned. One is on Locke, the other on racial issues.
- A final tests your recall of the concepts of the course. (I just found out about this. Guess I should have done the reading…)
I can’t point to anything specifically problematic, but everyone (including me) finds IHUM to be a terrible, terrible course. However, I enjoy discussing politics in section.
Drama 180b: Noam Chomsky: The Drama of Dissent
- Readings, quite a bit once a week, consist of Chomsky’s key writings on the US or US-backed invasion of this week’s country. (I try to do these, but don’t always since it’s a lot of reading.)
- Videos, a couple hours a week, consist of documentaries about those countries. (I almost always go to these, although they’re not very good.)
- Discussions, three hours once a week, consist of that week’s presenter giving the history of the country and moderating a long discussion about what we’ve read. (I always attend these, of course.)
- Of course, we have to give those presentations.
- One paper 10-12 is due at the end of the term on a topic we like.
Although I dislike the focus on foreign policy, this class is pretty fun and the teacher, a somewhat-tall man with a white mustache and an excited stream-of-consciousness manner of speaking, is very enjoyable to listen to.
posted November 29, 2004 01:18 AM (Education) (5 comments) #