Thursday, December 07, 2006

Found a college class I wish I had taken and the one I took of great value. Tip of the hat to Jonathan Bean.

I'm trying not to blog as much as I used to, it takes to much time to write a good entry. Today as a special "treat" I'll do two or three even.

I gave a talk to one of Dr. Bean's history of business classes (maybe Jon will give us the real course name) on Monday and I wish I had taken it when I was in school. The students are studying failed business plans and the history of business. For my money every business student should be taking this class and certainly, every entrepreneur student should be taking it. It is a great high level approach to looking at business or starting your own business. Time after time, being a student of business history and business management methods has saved me from failure.

The one class outside of computer science that I valued taking was Harold's Design class. It was really a class about how to be innovative, taught out of the design department. I don't know if it is still offered, but my project to make as many things out of bras and umbrellas was a great one for me at 19 years old. I liked the bionic trap shooter too.

Business history and innovation would be great building stones for all SIU graduates. I wonder why they aren't mandatory for all students?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There loads of classes taught at universities (not just SIU) that do a good job of broadcasting theories, ideas and general knowledge, but do very little in the way of relating it to the real world.

Pschology is a great example. You learn about the triggers and motivations of the human being (think Pavlov), but few follow it up with real world examples (e.g. how girl scouts market cookies or the how tupperware parties are almost impossible to attend w/o buying something).

Great classes show students how what they are learning can be (or is being) applied in the real world.

Way to go Dr. Bean.