With the unexpected election of Donald Trump, colleges around the country (but mostly on the coasts) are scrambling to put classes together for the spring semester to help their students be ready for the changing landscape of the country (politically, environmentally, and otherwise). A few of these new courses include:
From Alberta to Ontario: Learning about Canadian History and Culture
Description: This course is designed to help those who took the whole “moving to Canada” thing seriously. As it was probably too late to transfer to a college located in our neighbor to the north by the time the election occurred, we want to prepare students for their new homes come next fall.
Pre Requisites: Being liberal and having voted for Hillary. Shock and disdain for the current state of American politics and people is not mandatory, but highly recommended.
The Development of American Thought: How So Many White, Middle Class Americans Came to Feel Oppressed
Description: In part, the outcome of the 2016 American presidential election was decided by white uneducated voters who were called the “silent majority." Why did these voters choose to elect the guy who said “You’re fired!” for a living to bring back their jobs? And how do these people feel now that Trump’s cabinet is shaping up to be the richest in American history? We examine these ideas and many more to cultivate an understanding of the “silent majority."
Trump Speak: Level I
Full title: Learning Trump Speak and How to Use it to win an Election
Description: Donald Trump is a master of words, but not in the usual sense. Unlike literary masters, he does not construct magnificent sentences that border on being artistic works. In fact, he does the complete opposite. In Trump Speak: Level I we will be studying the speech patterns Trump implemented in the 2016 election and discuss if these patterns differ from those he has used in the past. The aim of this course is to learn how to use short sentences, grade school vocabulary and repetition to the students benefit. This speech could be used in job interviews, various social situations or even in an election. The final essay is worth 25 percent of the class grade. It will be a creative writing paper, written on a current topic in the news, written in the style of Trump. Extra credit will be given out if Trump speaks on the topic in real life and it sounds similar to the student’s speech patterns in the paper. The syllabus for this course has been created around this video.
Pre-Requisites: Passing the fourth grade/having a fourth grade reading level. Note that although this course is open to everyone, it may be hard for students above the freshman level to the grasp concepts being taught as it essentially requires everything they’ve learned about academic writing to be thrown out the window.
On a different note, all political science classes have been cancelled.
