| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
24 Oct 2005 08:22:11 AM |
| Object: |
Janes skimpy dress and Tarzans antics get academic treatment |
Tarzan's breast-beating, Jane's skimpy dress, and their treatment of
Cheetah are to be placed under the academic microscope by a University
of Reading historian who is trying to find out how the 1930s films went
from soft-core porn to domestic bliss.
Sarah Smith has been given a government grant of =A34,711 to travel to
Hollywood to study how the Tarzan scripts were toned down as moral
panic about the effect of cinema on children spread in the 1930s.
Her research, and new vocational degrees in surfing and soap operas,
were scorned as "Mickey Mouse" affairs by the chairman of the
Professional Association of Teachers, Barry Matthews, at its annual
conference in Bournemouth yesterday.
He told delegates from a wide range of educational fields that
teenagers were being brainwashed into thinking that university was
their only option as the government fretted about meeting its aim of
getting 50% of young people a university education by 2010.
The row about No 10's "widening participation" strategy is a talking
point at the conference, which will debate a motion today urging the
government to give pupils more opportunities to take up vocational
training.
The union's main gripe is with the introduction of vocational degrees
at universities. "Do you need a degree to prove you have a vocational
qualification?" Mr Matthews said yesterday. "Do we need bricklayers
with degrees or with practical ability?"
The study of Tarzan films focuses on a regulatory code established for
the US film industry in 1934. Before that the Tarzan films had scenes
of Jane swimming naked and homoerotic comedy featuring men taking baths
together.
After the code came into effect Jane became a domestic goddess, often
seen in a kitchen in the trees complete with a wide range of cooking
appliances.
Animal cruelty became an issue after it transpired that two lions had
been shot during filming in Africa.
Dr Smith said: "As a historian I'm interested in looking at how we
evolved socially and culturally. The Tarzan films are interesting
because of the depictions in them of class, race and gender which give
us an idea of how those things were perceived at the time.
"The other side is the history of film and censorship and how that has
evolved. The whole thing comes within the idea about popular culture
and moral panic.
"Every time something terrible happens the tendency is to blame popular
culture."
Universities defend courses and research accused of being "Mickey
Mouse", saying that in offering degrees in surfing, pilates, pop music
or golf they are simply responding to the demands of the market.
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| User: "Bob LeChevalier" |
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| Title: Re: Janes skimpy dress and Tarzans antics get academic treatment |
24 Oct 2005 04:43:18 PM |
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wrote:
Sarah Smith has been given a government grant of £4,711 to travel to
Hollywood to study how the Tarzan scripts were toned down as moral
panic about the effect of cinema on children spread in the 1930s.
Her research, and new vocational degrees in surfing and soap operas,
Those are two almost orthogonal topics.
were scorned as "Mickey Mouse" affairs by the chairman of the
Professional Association of Teachers, Barry Matthews, at its annual
conference in Bournemouth yesterday.
He told delegates from a wide range of educational fields that
teenagers were being brainwashed into thinking that university was
their only option as the government fretted about meeting its aim of
getting 50% of young people a university education by 2010.
And that one is a third, unrelated to the other two.
....
Dr Smith said: "As a historian I'm interested in looking at how we
evolved socially and culturally.
....
Thus she is a degreed professor performing research in her field.
Whether the topic is "Mickey Mouse" or not, is something that should
be judged by her peers in her academic field, and not by a union
leader with no academic credentials in history.
The nature of her research probably has little or nothing to do with
the courses she teaches or the material covered in her courses, unless
she teaches an occasional graduate-level course or seminar relating to
her work.
Universities defend courses and research accused of being "Mickey
Mouse", saying that in offering degrees in surfing, pilates, pop music
or golf they are simply responding to the demands of the market.
Research is subject to the judgement of the researchers' academic
peers, not to the marketplace; the students aren't paying for the
research. Courses are subject to the judgement of the marketplace of
those who pay for them - which means that if private individuals are
paying the bills then indeed they can take courses in surfing and pop
music. If the taxpayer is paying tuition for the student, then the
taxpayer is the customer, and there is justification for taxpayer
constraints on what they are willing to pay for.
Of course if there is any sort of independent accreditation review for
the university according to certify that the university has maintained
standards of a university education (which accreditation might affect
the decisions of the marketplace), then one would hope that the
accreditors are making sure that "surfing, pilates, pop music or golf"
is actually being taught to a university-level standard. I can
imagine university-level individual classes in those topics much more
easily than I can degrees in them.
lojbab
--
lojbab
Bob LeChevalier, Founder, The Logical Language Group
(Opinions are my own; I do not speak for the organization.)
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org
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