Daydreaming About the Classics

I'm on a mission right know to round out my education to support my career. First I need to complete a MSCS degree and then I plan on completing a MS degree in Engineering Management. However, while completing my BSCS degree, I took a course entitled "Gender and Social Roles in Ancient Greece" which satisified a literature as well as a multicultural requirement. I absolutely loved that class! I thoroughly enjoyed reading, analyzing and discussing the writings of Sappho, Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Euripides, etc. As a result, I often mull over the prospect of taking some courses for the fun of it so I can learn more about the classics (that is when I'm finished with my current plans.) Does anyone know of institutions that offer a reasonable course selection and provides for a good level of discussion? It's not that I'm going to take courses tommorrow, but I would like to spend some free time investigating my options.

 

No classes or discussions but just about everything else classical. Looks like a good place to start looking around.

http://www.tlg.uci.edu/index/courses.html

 

JoAnn,

Start here,

http://www.classics.ufl.edu/distance/courses.html

Florida also has a DL PhD in Classics. Closed for applications at the moment.

Regards,

Kevin

 

If you're really serious...

My son is just finishing his classics bachelors from UNCA and he's looking into this...

http://www.classics.ufl.edu/distance/distance.html

 

Fort Hays State University

ENGLISH 601

Topics in English--Videocassette Course Living Literature: The Classics and You

(Part I—Lessons 1-12—Genesis to Shakespeare)

http://gold.fhsu.edu/syllabus/eng/mfmeade/mmeadeeng601vctsf05.pdf


I think there will be a "The Classics and You II" soon.....there may be little to no discussion involved.

 

Hello JoAnn, I am in the same boat as you since I absolutely love classical studies... but on the Latin side and not so much the Greek. If you are at all interested in Latin, check out these independent correspondence courses at UGA:

http://www.gactr.uga.edu/idl/courses/offerings/latin/index.phtml

Some of these courses are designed by Richard LaFleur, who is a very big name in Latin. For the last 15 years I keep getting into the Intermediate level in Latin then forgetting it and having to start over again... my latest try might be to take one of the UGA courses, which are quite inexpensive.

Then there is the BA in Classical studies at the University of London external programme:

http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/prospective_students/undergraduate/holloway/classical_studies/index.shtml

The courses can be taken as a non-degree student. They look very interesting, although I have a major issue with the program itself... apparently you don't actually need to know any ancient languages! This strikes me as very odd. It's sort of like graduating with a BA in Spanish without knowing any Spanish.

Just for self-study and personal enjoyment I would suggest buying the Norton Book of Classical Literaure. It's a really excellent anthology with great translations.

 

Wow, thanks everyone! Such good information! As to the University of Florida (where I'm now attending) I worry that I'm not prepared for graduate level classwork in this subject. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. As a computer scientist, I have only taken a few courses outside my major (at least recently.) The course I mentioned earlier being an exception.

At this point I doubt that I would be looking for an actual degree program, but I would like to develop some sort of structure that I can use to direct my study. Should I take a course (or two) in latin? I might also like to fit in course or two in arcaeology and/or religious studies. I'm just not too sure where to look for these courses. Hopefully, as I look closer at the suggestions given this will become much clearer.

 

JoAnn,

RUN! RUN FAST! Don't let yourself be sucked into studying this kind of worthless drivel!

If you begin to ask THESE kind of questions, sooner or later you WILL be driven into the law or the ministry and the world, by which I mean some multinational corporation, will lose a promising profit center!

 

Don't worry Nozy, you'll be dry cleaning black robes way, WAY before I would actually even consider being a selfless member of society

 

Do you know about the College of the Humanities and Sciences? It's DETC-accredited, and it offers a Masters program based upon "great books, great conversations, great ideas".

http://www.chumsci.edu/

 

College of the Humanities and Sciences

Oooh! Oooh! And it's a REALLY neat looking program, too!

 

A good source of college-level instruction outside of the classroom may be had at The Teaching Company. They sell recorded lectures of a range of liberal arts subjects including, for instance, Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition. Most sets have a choice of format - DVD, VHS, audio CD or cassette. The material can be quite expensive but each month some go on (a genuine) sale and throughout the year each set is on sale at least once.

Right now I'm going through the Joy of Science series of 60 lectures. I purchased the DVDs along with the study guides and am really enjoying it.

Good luck,
Mark Sykes

 

Definitely take a a look at Brigham Young's DL course offering, JoAnn. They have courses in classical civ and classics that look pretty varied to me. The tuition is not bad either.

http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/catalog/select.cfm?type=univ&subject=10

Bing

 

BACHELOR'S DEGREES IN CLASSICS DL

Acadia University http://conted.acadiau.ca/distance/index.html
University of London www.lon.ac.uk
University of New England www.une.edu.au
Queens University at Kingston www.queensu.ca
University of Waterloo www.uwaterloo.ca

MASTER'S DEGREES IN CLASSICS DL

University of Florida www.fcd.ufl.edu
University of Melbourne www.unimelb.edu.au
University of New England www.une.edu.au
Open University (England) www.open.ac.uk
Tulane University www.tulane.edu

DOCTORAL DEGREES IN CLASSICS DL

University of Florida www.fcd.ufl.edu
University of Melbourne www.unimelb.edu.au
University of New England www.une.edu.au

 

The Center for the Study of the Great Ideas
http://www.thegreatideas.org/


Probably the best non-DL (i.e., residential),
accredited Great Books college in the country (or
at least the one that gets it completely right)
http://www.sjca.edu/


Colleges and Schools with Great Books programs
http://www.thegreatideas.org/schools.html and
http://www.mercer.edu/gbk/gbk/othergbk.html


The Great Books online
http://www.anova.org/index.html


Online "Gateway" to the Great Books
http://www.thegreatideas.org/gbgateway.html


The only online, distance learning program that awards
ACE-approved credits for reading/discussing the Great Books
http://www.greatbooksprogram.org/


Own the entire 370,000-page, 60-volume set for $995
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0852295316/qid=1125098283/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8041783-4906354?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


A book you need to read, no matter what you decide to
do; and/or before you dare to read even your first Great Book
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393050947/ref=cm_bg_d_2/104-8041783-4906354?v=glance


Good Google searches (just copy-n-paste either -- or both,
separately -- of the following into the Google search box and
press your keyboard's [Enter] key):

• "great books" site:.edu
  
  - or -
  
  +"great books" +distance OR online site:.edu

Hope that helps.

 

CORRECTION:

Good Google searches (just copy-n-paste either -- or both,
separately -- of the following into the Google search box and
press your keyboard's [Enter] key):

• "the great books" site:.edu
  
  - or -
  
  +"the great books" +distance OR online site:.edu

Sorry.

 

This also looks like it would work, and it's fairly inexpensive...

http://www.amu.apus.edu/Catalog/Graduate/Degree-Programs/Humanities.htm

 

I remember being interested in St. Johns when I was much younger... I just checked out their website and noticed it has the most depressing photos of students I have ever seen on any college website.



Compare that to this one from Bellevue University's latest newsletter...

 

It really depends on your idea of bliss.

 

ROTFLMAO!!! That is the funniest damn thing I have ever seen on this message board! I'll take Bellevue!