Syracuse University has set an educational precedent this semester that is going to be very difficult to top in terms of absurdity.
Assistant Professor Greg Thomas is teaching an accredited English class that studies the life and career of female rapper Lil’ Kim.
According to the course description, students must read her song lyrics as literary texts and analyze her iconography in videos and performances.
| The Issue Syracuse University is offering a class that analyzes the life and career of Lil’ Kim. |
Now, take a moment to absorb this mind-boggling concept. Lil’ Kim is being solely focused on in a college English class. Not only are people paying for it, but these students are receiving credit for it as well.
While it has been a growing trend at some U.S. universities to offer classes that analyze the growth of hip-hop, and while classes focusing on iconic figures such as the Beatles and Madonna are nothing new, Lil’ Kim is in no way worthy of such lofty acclamation.
This is, after all, the woman most famous for being felt up by Diana Ross at the MTV Video Music Awards. Her lyrics include “How many licks does it take till you get to the center of the … ?” and she’s been a guest singer on 50 Cent’s “Magic Stick” single. These events constitute a resume worthy of nothing more than a VH1 special.
Now, before you convince yourself that the apocalypse indeed is upon us and that attending your next class would thus be fruitless, let us just say that we at UW-Eau Claire should be proud that we have avoided the dumbing down occurring all around us.
Let us use this as incentive to retain something from our classes that even can be considered remotely useful outside the realm of Trivial Pursuit.
