FYI classes should not be changed

The notion among CSC students that First Year Inquiry classes have little value was brought to a new height during last Monday’s Student Senate meeting as Senators pronounced the classes as ineffective for student learning.

Better known as FYI’s, these classes have the objective of developing students’ inquiry skills using a curriculum of deep study matter. The subject matter varies greatly from one FYI class to another, so there is something for everyone: exploring the dynamics of many religions, examining and practicing various accounts of what happiness is and how best we can achieve it, and also Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

FYI classes are part of CSC’s Essential Studies program, which is in its second year; as part of this program, freshman are required to take one of these classes. Because FYI classes are fairly new, they are apt to change based on feedback. This is important to note because at the Student Senate meeting, suggestions were made to modify these classes in hopes of improving them.

But while some suggestions would be tweaks and improvements to the classes, other suggestions call for major overhauls that would cause the classes to miss the reason they were created in the first place. For example, a frequent suggestion talked about among students is to have the curriculum be more traditional. One suggestion brought up during the meeting was to change the objective of the classes from inquiry to developing professional writing skills. Because I believe the current form of FYI classes are the best classes at CSC, I feel it is in the best interest to keep them the way they are.

The curriculum works

A complaint I heard frequently about my FYI class last last year, Wizards and Vampires, is what real-life value does a class have when its non-traditional curriculum is made primarily of Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

For those who have not heard of the class, it is true. Wizards and Vampires was based around these and The Lord of the Rings; certainly such a curriculum is non-traditional, but such is not a weakness in an inquiry class. These three series contain so much to inquiry. For example, Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows illustrates larger ideas of good/evil heaven/hell through parable. This is manifested in the bright/dark clothing described in the novel, the normal/extreme gestures and handsome/haggard physiognomies of the protagonists and antagonists.

Not only does the curriculum provide a plethora of deep literature to inquiry for important life questions, it also is theoretically good for motivation because how awesome is a class in which you earn a grade for conversing about Harry Potter? Certainly more awesome than some class about numbers.

The objective works

Even when one decides the curriculum is effective for the objective, it may be further decided that the objective is not effective for learning. In this case the objective is inquiry, and Senate among the majority of CSC students do not find it effective. Instead, there is want to change the objective to developing professional writing skills.

First, I am all for developing professional writing skills, but not as the focus of FYI classes. The reason is that it is literally the object of Composition II, and Composition I to a lessor extent. Why practically get rid of one class to duplicate another?

Second, inquiry as an objective is very valuable. It may not be direct training for almost any job, but I don’t believe college is about training for jobs. I believe it is about getting an education; as a liberal arts school, CSC will have an academic focus on humanities over technical, pre-professional fields of study.

With that said, I can think of very few skills that are more conducive to effective learning than inquiry skills. If one truly puts forth the effort in these classes, the benefit is there. In general the lessons revolve around the concepts revolve around critical thinking about life’s biggest questions; among the skills developed during the course to help refine students’ answers is the ability to distinguish lessons and morals in everything: in writing, in all forms of media, in simple conversation, and so on. In this sense, one can think of inquiry skills as a building block to better their education in all areas.

I realize FYI classes are very unpopular, and that even if the concepts it embodies are good in theory that they have not been effective so far. But before trying to make it a carbon copy of an already existing class, and before throwing away the fun literature like Harry Potter for numbers, give the classes an honest try.