There was a story on FOXNews.com this morning, or last night, I can never tell about universities teaching non-traditional courses. The story was pretty critical of colleges charging $1000 a semester for a class on subjects like Superhero Science.
They study the physics of flying and fluid dynamics that allows Superman to zoom through the air, and discuss spider silk, which Spider-Man relies on for his death-defying swings from skyscraper to skyscraper and real spiders use to spin their webs. (The substance is currently being developed for human use because of its incredible strength.)
First of all, I really don’t see a problem with it. They way I see it–each student has X amount of credit hours to earn their degree, if they want to use elective to study this–why not? Also, if they want to hang around and pay the extra money, or get a loan, that’s on them. They are college students—if they are going to be managers of our companies,teachers for our students, or Platoon Leaders in our Army in a couple of years , I think that they would have enough maturity to make that choice.
But on the Superhero science issue–I think that it is important that we teach people to make believe.Â
Star Trek is probably the best example of this. It seems to me that many of the products that we are using today or may one day use in the future is somehow prompted by a gadget in Star Trek–it is amazing but true. I remember the first IM I sent on a computer with the military…I sent it across the room and thought that was the coolest thing. Now, just the other day I had a video teleconference with a group of family members 8 hours away. More and more looking like Star Trek.
If we take imagination are explore it–that is where inventions come from. Superhero Science teaches us about physics and math–but it also teaches us to dream and to explore.