enrollments

[Robert Beard]

Madeline Levine responded to my (perhaps overstated) concern for freshman
seminars in the following way:

>It seems to me that freshman seminars are an educationally sound
>innovation (or reintroduction of an older practice), especially at larger
>institutions, and that it's not a good idea for us Slavists to be
>grumbling about or attacking something that is good for students.  Then
>it looks as if we are just protecting turf, rather than finding ways to
>contribute to a decent education.

        Under the assumption that we teach Russian because knowing and using
the Russian language contributes to a decent education, the loss of Russian
courses and programs across the country would not necessarily contribute to
a more decent education for our students on the whole.  While enrollments in
English language and translation courses certainly help maintain the
contribution of Russian programs, they do not contribute towards our-- if
you'll pardon the expression--major concern.   The likelihood of a student
taking first semester Russian returning to deepen his/her understanding of
what we are trained to teach is much higher than the likelihood of a
lit-in-translation student continuing.  I don't see any a priori advantage
in trading serious language study and courses to use language skills in for
seminars in basic research skills which students pick up in well-taught
courses, anyway (the cardinal purpose of most of these programs).

        The Russian Program at Bucknell offers two of the best seminars
which draws students to lit-in-translation and linguistics (recall my recent
announcement of the only course exploring both current major revolutions:
the remaking of the Russian Empire and the techonological revolution brought
by the internet).  But this is not our central objective and if an innovaton
costs us that objective it must replace the value lost.  At Bucknell it
doesn't.
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Robert Beard                              Bucknell University
Russian & Linguistics Programs            Lewisburg, PA 17837
rbeard at bucknell.edu                              717-524-1336
Russian Program   http://www.bucknell.edu/departments/russian
Morphology on Internet        http://www.bucknell.edu/~rbeard
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