Three cheers for what may as well be the best and the worst General Education (GE) course that I've taken during the course of my painfully enjoyable college years. Hep hep booray! Hep hep whatever...
Here at the University, like the rest of the world probably, students are required to take a specific number of GE courses which serve to provide a balance between the nightmares of Major courses and the void of longing for something not entirely related to our respective field of expertise. GE subjects here are split into three domains: Arts and Humanities (AH), Social Sciences and Philosophy (SSP), and Mathematics, Science, and Technology (MST).
We're required to take five courses from each domain totaling to 15 GE courses including those that are required. For this semester I'm currently taking HUM 2, an AH GE course.
There are three HUM subjects listed in the plan of coursework.
HUM 1, which I've already taken, is about Literature, Man and Society. A course I took expecting that I can enhance my skills in creative writing but it ended up being more of a slightly talky and preachy course about existing literature than creating something new out of bending the established rules and standards in writing literary pieces.
We were given plenty of select reading materials to analyse but out of a thick binder of collected stories I only enjoyed The Little Prince. Still even with the course's in-depth analysis of classic and acknowledged pieces of mastercrafts from distinguished wordsmiths every lecture almost never provided an exact interpretation and left each reading material's analysis open-ended. It's pretty hard to appreciate the course because it felt lacking, there's no closure, and the motivation to seek one alone is lost long before the semester has ended.
HUM 3's course title is Reading of Film, TV, and the Internet. I don't have this on my plan of course work so what I know about this course goes as far as what the title says and what some of my friends who took the subject had to say.
It's boring.
Sure reading and critiquing a film sounds fun but not if you're forcing yourself to watch the film in the first place. They might have other activities aside from analyzing films that withstood the challenge of time but on my part I think HUM 3 is like HUM 1 but with reels instead of paper.
HUM 2 - Art, Man and Society is one of the two GE course I'm currently taking this semester.
Of the four months worth of 1 and a half hour lecture sessions per week this semester, HUM 2 felt just like a retelling of what has already been covered in high school. The types of art, the arts per era, music, symbolism, personal preference and the eternally hanging question to the tune of "What is art?" were the contents of this semester's HUM 2. I especially appreciated the music component of the class for two reasons: 1. The lecturer is also the conductor of Harmonia who I greatly look up to, and 2. She doesn't have a forceful way of teaching, it's the type that when the lecture starts you immediately want to listen. And that's it basically. There should be a HUM 4 solely dedicated to appreciating music.
I took HUM 2 mainly because I suck at art. I suck at drawing, judging aesthetics, and I found it hard to appreciate the pieces of art that defined its generations - those that get preserved and named as icons of their time. Maybe, I thought, with HUM 2 I get a smack of realization in the face to not just look at one side of art. But no, really. I didn't get to appreciate art any more than before the semester started.
HUM 2 didn't help in the appreciation part, but it did help in the understanding part.
I understand that for art to be appreciated you either have to be mysterious or you have to be loud. You either hide the message and bear the interpretation of your audience, or be as loud as can be and set your own message only to be taken the wrong way.
Art, for me anyway, is the embodiment of the artist's inner desires that he can only speak in a language that only those willing to listen can understand.
HUM 2 didn't teach me that. by the way. I've thought of that definition since last year, I just never found the right time to use it.
Anyway, aside from the basic teachings of art and how to properly deal with it as if it's permanently set on stone, HUM 2 also gives you a hefty price tag. I wish I've known that long before I started to scribble the rankings on my coursework so I could've dodged such an expensive and time consuming GE course. It's one of those courses which makes you go "minor na nagpapaka-major".
Plenty of requirements are given right after the introductions. There's a field trip, a site specific visual arts performance, a drawing of a ball, the materialization of the drawing of the ball, an art journal, a musical performance, a Christmas Tree, and some concerts, plays and other extracurricular activities held at the D.L. Umali Auditorium.
While I definitely do sound like it, I'm not complaining, actually I enjoyed most of these requirements. But what really grinds my gears is that we had to pay to earn our grade.
The field trip is the biggest offender. We didn't have a clear itinerary until what like one of two weeks before the trip, and we had to pay first not knowing where we're going exactly. It's like paying the entrance fee of a theme park without knowing what rides are available. And during the trip? Oops we're not going to all of 'em, here's 10% of the total payment in compensation. Like whut? The trip is so low quality I might as well spend the fee playing House of the Dead and Time Crisis until I break the games. What part of that field trip was worth PhP 1260? Sure you can argue that the CCP concert was worth it, and it actually was but c'mon we were practically watching on the roof. Back in high school we were able to go to four different places and the fee was just a little over the one above. But it was well organized, we had plenty of time to spare, and we came from a much farther place.
HUM 2 is such a disjointed course that it actually feels intentional. Like it's the biggest and longest team building activity ever. I've (somewhat?) made it clear why I consider HUM 2 to be the worst but the experience together with these guys:
Really makes everything better. All those jokes, pranks, brainstorming and group works...all of it irreplaceable.
So did HUM 2 actually increase my INT stat? Not really.
Did it help me appreciate art even more? No.
Did I get better at anything related to art? No.
Given the chance would you want to take it again? Heck no.
Did I enjoy HUM 2?
...
It's fun to see people working together, even more when you're part of it.
Here at the University, like the rest of the world probably, students are required to take a specific number of GE courses which serve to provide a balance between the nightmares of Major courses and the void of longing for something not entirely related to our respective field of expertise. GE subjects here are split into three domains: Arts and Humanities (AH), Social Sciences and Philosophy (SSP), and Mathematics, Science, and Technology (MST).
We're required to take five courses from each domain totaling to 15 GE courses including those that are required. For this semester I'm currently taking HUM 2, an AH GE course.
There are three HUM subjects listed in the plan of coursework.
HUM 1, which I've already taken, is about Literature, Man and Society. A course I took expecting that I can enhance my skills in creative writing but it ended up being more of a slightly talky and preachy course about existing literature than creating something new out of bending the established rules and standards in writing literary pieces.
We were given plenty of select reading materials to analyse but out of a thick binder of collected stories I only enjoyed The Little Prince. Still even with the course's in-depth analysis of classic and acknowledged pieces of mastercrafts from distinguished wordsmiths every lecture almost never provided an exact interpretation and left each reading material's analysis open-ended. It's pretty hard to appreciate the course because it felt lacking, there's no closure, and the motivation to seek one alone is lost long before the semester has ended.
HUM 3's course title is Reading of Film, TV, and the Internet. I don't have this on my plan of course work so what I know about this course goes as far as what the title says and what some of my friends who took the subject had to say.
It's boring.
Sure reading and critiquing a film sounds fun but not if you're forcing yourself to watch the film in the first place. They might have other activities aside from analyzing films that withstood the challenge of time but on my part I think HUM 3 is like HUM 1 but with reels instead of paper.
HUM 2 - Art, Man and Society is one of the two GE course I'm currently taking this semester.
Of the four months worth of 1 and a half hour lecture sessions per week this semester, HUM 2 felt just like a retelling of what has already been covered in high school. The types of art, the arts per era, music, symbolism, personal preference and the eternally hanging question to the tune of "What is art?" were the contents of this semester's HUM 2. I especially appreciated the music component of the class for two reasons: 1. The lecturer is also the conductor of Harmonia who I greatly look up to, and 2. She doesn't have a forceful way of teaching, it's the type that when the lecture starts you immediately want to listen. And that's it basically. There should be a HUM 4 solely dedicated to appreciating music.
I took HUM 2 mainly because I suck at art. I suck at drawing, judging aesthetics, and I found it hard to appreciate the pieces of art that defined its generations - those that get preserved and named as icons of their time. Maybe, I thought, with HUM 2 I get a smack of realization in the face to not just look at one side of art. But no, really. I didn't get to appreciate art any more than before the semester started.
HUM 2 didn't help in the appreciation part, but it did help in the understanding part.
I understand that for art to be appreciated you either have to be mysterious or you have to be loud. You either hide the message and bear the interpretation of your audience, or be as loud as can be and set your own message only to be taken the wrong way.
Art, for me anyway, is the embodiment of the artist's inner desires that he can only speak in a language that only those willing to listen can understand.
HUM 2 didn't teach me that. by the way. I've thought of that definition since last year, I just never found the right time to use it.
Anyway, aside from the basic teachings of art and how to properly deal with it as if it's permanently set on stone, HUM 2 also gives you a hefty price tag. I wish I've known that long before I started to scribble the rankings on my coursework so I could've dodged such an expensive and time consuming GE course. It's one of those courses which makes you go "minor na nagpapaka-major".
Plenty of requirements are given right after the introductions. There's a field trip, a site specific visual arts performance, a drawing of a ball, the materialization of the drawing of the ball, an art journal, a musical performance, a Christmas Tree, and some concerts, plays and other extracurricular activities held at the D.L. Umali Auditorium.
While I definitely do sound like it, I'm not complaining, actually I enjoyed most of these requirements. But what really grinds my gears is that we had to pay to earn our grade.
The field trip is the biggest offender. We didn't have a clear itinerary until what like one of two weeks before the trip, and we had to pay first not knowing where we're going exactly. It's like paying the entrance fee of a theme park without knowing what rides are available. And during the trip? Oops we're not going to all of 'em, here's 10% of the total payment in compensation. Like whut? The trip is so low quality I might as well spend the fee playing House of the Dead and Time Crisis until I break the games. What part of that field trip was worth PhP 1260? Sure you can argue that the CCP concert was worth it, and it actually was but c'mon we were practically watching on the roof. Back in high school we were able to go to four different places and the fee was just a little over the one above. But it was well organized, we had plenty of time to spare, and we came from a much farther place.
HUM 2 is such a disjointed course that it actually feels intentional. Like it's the biggest and longest team building activity ever. I've (somewhat?) made it clear why I consider HUM 2 to be the worst but the experience together with these guys:
Really makes everything better. All those jokes, pranks, brainstorming and group works...all of it irreplaceable.
So did HUM 2 actually increase my INT stat? Not really.
Did it help me appreciate art even more? No.
Did I get better at anything related to art? No.
Given the chance would you want to take it again? Heck no.
Did I enjoy HUM 2?
...
It's fun to see people working together, even more when you're part of it.
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