August 2, 2004
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Just got back from Hershey Park. Rides and chocolate. The perfect combination. Only 9 more days of camp!!!
Still developing a marketing strategy for my book. Planning to be in St. Louis for orientation and the first week of classes. Trying to design a course around my book, obviously an unofficial and therefor free class, but a class where students will basically get to discuss some of the issues I bring up in my book, as well as to take on some experiential education activities such as:
investigate college policies (tuition, purpose of college, what defines a course, what defines credit)
research non-traditional jobs and lifestyles
create service projects
explore st. louis
weekend road trips
organizing social activities w/ professors and faculty
self-publish there own books (possibly put together a collection of students’ experiences on this non-traditional course)
I’ll be living comfortably on my old roommates couch for about a month, depending on how things go. Hopefully make a dollar or two on the book, but mostly just looking to have others help spread my ideas. Also, hoping to have this course be a pilot that schools can take up as a for-credit thing, so students can pay and receive credits for learning not just what is offered inside the classroom, but learning whatever they possibly can outside the classroom. This is a model of a course I would also like to expand to abroad situations, as I have already gotten a go-ahead to run a course like this in South Africa which would include many awesome outdoor activities. But…till now, I’m still working on the drawing board. We’re about a month away from a 100% finished book, and getting back some real-world feedback on this project.
-dan
Comments (2)
you might want to check the really liberal schools (i.e. – berkeley and brown) because at these schools students can create classes. i know at berkeley, these classes are student taught, pass/fail (usually based on attendance more than anything else – i know because i taught one and took 4), and they’re wicked fun.
i’d love to hang out – but i can’t think beyond friday, my mind is linked to friday. after friday, my world as i have known it for the last month and half is over (goodbye pyjamas!) and i’ll be lost in a haze of “what the hell do i do now?”
ps – hershey park is the shit! their roller coasters rock, especially the wooden one.