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Comment on At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

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Worth noting from the course listing that this is an English/Creative Writing class, not a Computer Science class. So I imagine you would be writing papers about wasting time on the internet rather than actually doing so.

As part of its so-called core curriculum, Penn typically requires students in all schools to take a writing class. They kinda go out of their way to offer a variety of interesting options because writing is not everyone's thing. My class was "Man in Nature" and featured Thorough, Emerson, etc. It focused a lot on being in nature, which is also atypical for an English class, just not the kind of atypical that gets reported.

I read Thorough in high school. So it's not that atypical...

Surely you mean Thoreau...? Given that you read him in high school..

His name didn't appear that often...

Yes. I was tired when I wrote that.

I read Shakespeare in 6th grade and in grad school. You can study works at many different levels.

Read the article. Not quite what you think. There is writing involved, but actual time "wasting" is definitely a key part of the curriculum :)

Yeah, it's basically a writing workshop class with class hours as enforced "let your mind wander and use that for inspiration" time. (Presumably writing submissions and feedback happen online or at the beginning or end of class sessions.)

Yeah, this is an art project, effectively.

Certainly interesting and I would say worthy of HN, but it's not a tech article.

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