Being an English major usually prepares you for odd and even slightly questionable lessons where you sit and wonder what exactly that particular lecture has anything at all to do with your subject. But even with regular irrelevant topics (particularly from students from other disciplines attempting to wrestle in their own subject and make it relevant) I thought I'd pretty much seen all the unconventional methods of teaching. Until today...
Sitting in a Rhetoric seminar is confusing and rhetoric itself doesn't even have a fixed definition (just to add to the ambiguity of the entire thing).. However whilst practising progymnastics (writing exercises in rhetoric!) our tutor decided we should follow Phaedrus's approach to teaching. He placed a bottle of soda on the table and gave us three-quarters of an hour to write about it. Bizzare and quite honestly I didn't really see the point of the exercise.. Anyone care to explain how writing about a bottle will help me develop my English skills and get a job?? I think rhetoric has too many philosophical links (not that it's a bad thing) making the concepts extremely profound and difficult to grasp.. The last rhetoric assignment I handed in was composed of no direction or even clear points.. I dread to see the grade! Maybe Phaedrus had a point when he advocated grade abolishment..
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