Need some FJ expertise...

[marmalade]

So I'm reading the "About Us" page of the Bates Family Blog where I guess Kelly originally and mistakenly posted her pregnancy announcement.

 

At any rate, it states that Michaella (that's the spelling these days) *eyeroll* is pursuing a degree in English. With this in mind I have a couple of questions:

 

1. What would the curriculum look like? Do they just read approved books and write reports or they allowed to create their own theses and write essays that go against the views of the school, but still can be proven in text (ie. be allowed to think critically)? If she's going to Gothard U, how can she do anything but TOE the party line? If she's going to Erin's school, taking one class a semester, she'll be done by the time she's 30 and, like any four year school I know of anyway, paying full tuition for every semester regardless of units taken...what a waste of money!

 

2. WHY? What value is an English degree going to have since their reading choices are so limited and she looks to be the Jill Duggar of that family; she'll be 40 and standing at the head of the DRT homeschooling the youngest of Kelly's blessings. An English degree isn't required to have Callie-Anna write a book report on "Before You Meet Prince Charming" or a Maxwell masterpiece. I suppose her degree will be helpful in crafting the typical 9th graders' 5-paragraph essay, which is about all that's required for a GED.

 

I just can't see how this is going to be of any real help to her in the long run, especially given that the websites for the colleges (distance or brick and mortar) that they choose have websites an 8th grader could have written, with many faculty only holding master's degrees.

 

I think she'd be better off going the nursing route. At least that would be practical education that she could use in her on-going career as an EMT. Speaking of which, does she have to quit if Zach does?

[Brainsample]

College Plus might be a viable option. They channel the degree through this Doug Phillips, Bill Gothard lovin' College Plus through Thomas Edison State College's distance learning option wherein you earn an accredited four year degree. Of course, a person could just apply to TESC directly and circumvent College Plus altogether and could probably save additional money.

[xDreamerx]

I think the cirriculum would be extremely limited and would probably make lists of banned books look liberal. I'm an English major (almost done my BA) and just thinking of some of titles I have studied---her head would explode if she read them. Maybe Milton and Donne would be acceptable, perhaps even Spenser. Actually, I could definitely see her being able to read Anne Bradstreet, very Puritan, very submissive and wifely. But could you image if she were to read Blake or Keats?! Head explosion. Not to mention Ginsberg, Plath, Tony Morrison, Alice Walker, Kerouac, Stein, Woolf, I could go on. I could see her being allowed to read Austen maybe, or the Brontes. But even some of their characters would be too mouthy and strong willed.

Why? I suspect because it might be considered typically female along with nursing, teaching etc.

[Buzzard]

I guess we're not sure what type of english degree it is. All it really takes is an inkjet printer...

[jesusfreak]

I think she would enjoy reading D H Lawrence.

[Artemis]

I think the cirriculum would be extremely limited and would probably make lists of banned books look liberal. I'm an English major (almost done my BA) and just thinking of some of titles I have studied---her head would explode if she read them. Maybe Milton and Donne would be acceptable, perhaps even Spenser. Actually, I could definitely see her being able to read Anne Bradstreet, very Puritan, very submissive and wifely. But could you image if she were to read Blake or Keats?! Head explosion. Not to mention Ginsberg, Plath, Tony Morrison, Alice Walker, Kerouac, Stein, Woolf, I could go on. I could see her being allowed to read Austen maybe, or the Brontes. But even some of their characters would be too mouthy and strong willed.

Why? I suspect because it might be considered typically female along with nursing, teaching etc.

Who, John Donne?

He's hot, dontcha know!

Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,

Until I labor, I in labor lie.

The foe oft-times having the foe in sight,

Is tir'd with standing though he never fight.

Off with that girdle, like heaven's Zone glittering,

But a far fairer world encompassing.

Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear,

That th'eyes of busy fools may be stopt there.

Unlace your self, for that harmonious chime,

Tells me from you, that now it is bed time.

Off with that happy busk, which I envie,

That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.

Your gown going off, such beautious state reveals,

As when from flow'ry meads th'hills shadow steals.

Off with that wiry Coronet and show

The hairy diadem which on you doth grow:

Now off with those shoes, and then softly tread

In this, love's hallow'd temple, this soft bed.

In such white robes, heaven's Angels us'd to be

Receiv'd by men: thou Angel bringst with thee?

A heaven like Mahomet's Paradice, and though

Ill spirits walk in white, we eas'ly know,

By this these Angels from an evil sprite,

Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.

License my roving hands, and let them go,

Behind, before, above, between, below.

O my America! my new-found-land,

My kingdom, safeliest when with one man man'd,

My mine of precious stones: my emperie,

How blest am I in this discovering thee!

To enter in these bonds, is to be free;

Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.

Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,

As souls unbodied, bodies uncloth'd must be,

To taste whole joyes. Gems which you women use

Are like Atlanta's balls, cast in mens views,

That when a fool's eye lighteth on a gem,

His earthly soul may covet theirs, not them:

Like pictures or like books gay coverings made

For lay-men, are all women thus array'd.

Themselves are mystick books, which only wee

(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)

Must see rever'd. Then since that I may know;

As liberally, as to a midwife show

Thyself: cast all, yea, this white linen hence,

There is no penance due to innocence.

To teach thee I am naked first; why than,

What needst thou have more covering then a man?

Don't think she'll be reading this any time soon . . . ;)

[uber frau]

Haha. Fundie flashback: I remember Donne being one of the poets on my (fundie) school's Lit syllabus. They tried to pretend that one wasn't in the anthology.

We used to get censored books to study, but the uncensored versions were available in the teacher's resource section of the library.