Luna del'Corvo

thanks! Although I can't take the credit, or not entirely. I have to turn that praise onto the program I work in - it's designed to do just that. No matter the major, all students have to take four courses in what they call the Interdisciplinary Core. These classes can be on a wide variety of topics, suggested by the instructors, not the university, and they cover everything from movies, literature, music, culture, you name it.

In addition to the content, each level has a different learning objective. Freshman focus on Critical Thinking and writing skills. Sophomore IDC classes apply these skills to some fact of American culture, history, etc., with a geography component. Juniors do the same with an international theme, and senior IDC classes deal with Catholic Social Justice. I know, bring on the jokes, right? But they do a good job in this program.

For the 300, my husband taught a class in Japanese Sword, and the students had to learn basic sword kata in a cultural context. For the 400, he did Sustainable Systems, and the students helped build composting and garden systems at a local community center while learning about things like pollution and food as a social justice issue. It's a really unique program, and it's really cool. It's a very small university, but they get tons of awards and attention for this program.

I don't usually put out names, but if you're interested, the course listings for Summer (which are kind of lean, but you get the idea) are here: http://tinyurl.com/75zsrv8

(Sorry to run on, but I really love this program, and I feel so luck to have the chance to be doing this - it's such a good approach, and it's SO much better from an instructor's standpoint than the usual '101 Intro to...' nonsense most beginning profs get!)