Reasons Not To Take This Class

You don't come to class or You leave class early or You come to class late Your final grade in this course is based on 100 points. 46 of those 100 points are earned by being in the classroom for the entire hour and five minutes the class runs for. If you lose 46 points, you cannot pass the course. The lowest grade you can pass this course with is a D minus, which is 60 points. If you come late, you will lose half those 46 points. If you leave early, you will lose half those 46 points. If you don't come to class at all you will lose all those 46 points. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where attendance is not required. Choose your options based on who you are and how you are likely to behave.

You don't like television We are gonna watch a lot of television in this class. And when we aren't watching it, we are talking about it. If you don't like TV, you are gonna be miserable. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where watching TV is not required. Choose your options based on who you are and what you enjoy.

You don't like movies We are gonna watch some movies for this class. And the only assignments you are gonna do outside of class are on movies. If you don't like movies, you are gonna be miserable. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where watching movies is not required. Choose your options based on who you are and what you enjoy.

You don't like documentaries We are gonna watch a lot of documentaries in this class. In order for you to understand the main tasks of this course, you are going to have to pay attention during documentaries, take notes, and be able to discuss the documentaries in class. I am the first to admit documentaries are a little dry. But they are good way to slog through a decade of information quickly. But if you just completely hate documentaries, you are gonna be miserable. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where watching documentaries is not required. Choose your options based on who you are and what you can stand doing.

You don't like history This is a course in which we examine television from the 1950s through the 1970s And we watch movies and documentaries about those decades. Those were heady years—full of events and changes that have formed the bedrock of the lives we live now. If you find looking back on history in order to learn something about why we are the way we are to be boring or distasteful, you will be miserable in this class. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where delving into history is not required. Choose your options based on who you are and what you enjoy.

You don't like group discussion Pretty much every day in this class, you will talk in a small group. You will be assigned to a different group for each decade. You will sit with that group every day. This is a big class, so the only way to really dig into the issues we need to examine in an in-depth manner, we have to divide up. This mass of people. We will get a lot deeper in a small group discussion than we would in a big one. So if you are looking for straight lectures, you will hate it here. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State that are just straight lectures. Choose your options based on who you are and how you learn best.

You don't like making comments or asking questions in class Your final grade in this course is based on 100 points. 14 of those 100 points can only be earned by making comments or asking questions during our large class discussions. There is no pressure on your comments or questions: absolutely no way to say the wrong thing. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where being completely silent in class is the status quo. Choose your options based on who you are and what you feel comfortable doing.

You prefer tests There are no tests in this class. It is my opinion that tests do not demonstrate to me what you know, what you think, or what you have learned. So I don't give tests. If you love tests, you will be miserable here. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where taking tests is required. Choose your options based on who you are and what you enjoy.

You prefer reading text books There is no reading in this class. We will get our information by watching various texts. If prefer to read, you will be miserable here. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where reading is the primary way to access information. Choose your options based on who you are and how you learn best.

You hate giving your opinion in papers Your final grade in this course is based on 100 points. 28 of those 100 points can only be earned by writing four short papers on movies. In these papers, you will only be sharing your thoughts and opinions. These papers are not based on research but are based on your ideas about specific parts of the movies you will be renting and viewing. Know yourself. There are tons of classes at Portland State where leaving your opinion out of your papers is preferred. Choose your options based on who you are and what you enjoy.