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Schuyler

Schuyler

Misanthrope
One of the things that galled me about the Paola Harris interview was her complete lack of understanding of what constitutes a 'profession.' Our hosts obviously understand the concept and tried valiantly to get her to admit that she had no business 'teaching' at an 'institute,' particulaly one that 'studies' known charalatans, but she either avoided or didn't understand what they were saying. I took a look at the institute: http://www.exopoliticsinstitute.org/certificates/index.htm and I have to say I like the concept, but deplore the implementation. I mean, a 'Galactic Diplomacy Certificate'???? How would you like to put that on your resume?

But the idea itself has some merit, particularly in a field where anyone can drop in and proclaim themselves an expert just because they read a book once. A few of us over at a 'place I no longer frequent' tried once to put together a UFO curriculum and even had the interest of a community college, but it never got anywhere. MUFON, of course, has a course or two, but you are relegated to taking a tape measure and investigating indentations in soil. They seem to have never left the fifties age of innocence. (I'm thinking maybe Walt Andrus had something to do with that.)

I'd like to hear your thoughts on what could be done in the field of UFO education and what such a program would look like. Reading lists? tests? Faculty? Modules? etc. Even if it would be an 'Experimental College' kind of format. Is there any group you think legitimate enough to sponsor such a venture? Are there any requirements that would form the core base of knowledge necessary?
 
Aaron LeClair said:
I have no problem with her teaching a course. It needs to be called Woo woo 101 though.
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I think you hit on part of the problem, though. Any group can step up and say, "I are an Institute" and start charging money for courses, like these jokers have. The respect for the education is in large part all about the institution's credibility, which comes in turn from their faculty. If you had courses taught by Richard Dolan, Jeff Ritzmann, Jerome Clark, and Stan Friedman, you might actually have something valuable and respected. That these guys have the gall to stand up and proclaim themselves experts reminds me of L. Ron Hubbard's alledged comment to Ted Sturgeon, a fellow science fiction writer (sometimes the 2nd party is attributed to Isaac Asimov): "Someday I will pull something that will make P.T. Barnum look like a piker."
 
it reflects a phenomena ive long seen in the US, the bogus "certification"
its well known here you can get a diploma in anything from the US.

years ago i remember a pair of wiccan practitioners in my social circle got ordained as reverends in the church of all worlds or the like, and bingo they were "certified" reverends.
they added rev to their tittles and used the tax exemption laws as pertaining to "church" to max advantage.

good on you all for regulating your area of expertise and exposing the frauds and money wasters

it helps prevent ppl from wasting their time and money on these sorts of organisations, and makes those already holding a "certificate" from them less likely to hang it on the wall as a badge of honour.
 
I've thought about this general idea for a long time but have never really distilled down a coherent curriculum. I've probably mentioned on this board before that I feel to even begin to have some kind of honest appreciation for how deep and complex the subject is you would need to take a semester long college course. Watching a few documentaries on tv is just not going to do it. I've often found myself talking to a friend who has just watched something on tv about the subject and wants my opinion. It is very frustrating to try to convey relevant points I've collected from thousands of hours of reading into a condensed argument. I think David summed it up perfectly w/ his "There is no Reader's Digest version" observation.

On a related note, I recently finished reading The Lure of the Edge and enthusiastically recommend this book. (I would also love to hear Denzler interviewed on the show...hint..hint) I would give it serious consideration as core reading material for an introductory college class on the subject. It is written by an academic in an academic style. It is meticulously footnoted and is worth acquiring as a reference for the bibliography alone which is almost as long as the book itself. Most importantly, it may be the single most neutral book I have ever read on the subject. The author is extremely careful to not take a position and I feel does an outstanding job of presenting an overview of how weird the subject is, the vast range of personalities that have been involved and legitimate skeptical concerns.
 
I think this could be a really interesting thread.

I think a main starting off point could be 'what is the goal' of the curriculum? It is impossible to be an expert on something we know very little to nothing about? I think the goal could be providing newbies an awareness of the issue, why it's worth considering, how complex it is and what some of the leading theories could be at this point in time.

The issue as a whole incorporates Sociology, Philosophy, History, Religion, Political Science, Media and Psychology, unfortunately the engineering disciplines, physics and biology don't stand on their own. I think one jumping off point other than doing a 'Top Ten' cases/reasons could involve which aspects of the UFO enigma fit into which of these categories.

-History/Politics - basically read Rich Dolans books :)

- Media - show how media's tone has dramatically changed from the 1950's till now and read old articles from credible news sources

- Psychology - John Mack type findings on abductees and witnesses which is fair and balanced including night paralysis etc...

- Philosophy - what could this all mean to our existence?

- Photo Analysis/Chemistry/Biology/Physics combined - any real scientific analysis that has been done - trace cases, implants, scars, video, photos including both unknowns that could be real and fakes like Meiir

- Sociology/Religion/Psychology - why do some people deny very real events, why some people make up stuff for no reason, the focus on human behavior in relation to this topic in general and how we respond (some join cults, some in denial, most don't care at all, why? )

- Philosophy - what are some major theories on UFO's origins and what are the ramifications on humans depending on each scenario? the Jaque Vallee unit!

- Ancient History - what parts of the ancient writings have depicted this type of phenomena

Just some ideas, as a religion major in college I would have loved to have had classes on some of this stuff!
 
mike said:
it reflects a phenomena ive long seen in the US, the bogus "certification"
its well known here you can get a diploma in anything from the US.
Click to expand...

Like almost every other facet of American Society, colleges have degenerated into sinkholes pf politically correct narcissism. Some of the "best" schools in the country are offering accredited courses such as Gay and Lesbian Cinema, Feminist Theories of Science and Feminist Science, Cuba; an Experiment in Equality, Girl Culture, Whiteness; the Other Side of Racism, and the ever popular Sex Change City; Theorizing History in Genderqueer San Francisco. ("I'm not kidding, check the facts.)
Not that Europe isn't gradually going the same way, they're just moving at a slower pace. Teachers in England are refusing to include any discussion of the Holocaust in history classes because Muslim students may be offended.
Right. Time to starting kicking asses.
How can civilization, let alone a decent society, survive when we entrust our children's education to morons like that?
When is the revolution coming? I'm getting tired of waiting.
 
A mock curriculum loosely based on a typical Arts & Sciences curriculum.

The following is a theoretical outline for a comprehensive major in Ufology at the Bachelor’s Degree level. It attempts to cover the field of Ufology in a comprehensive manner, both past and present. In addition, the student must fulfill the distribution requirements of the College of Arts & Sciences. Note that the requirements for the UFO Major are more onerous than most majors and may require additional quarters of study. A student graduating satisfactorily from this course of study can be expected to be knowledgeable about all facets of the field of Ufology. 60 credits from the following:

Major Courses Requirements: The UFO List

UFO 101 (3) Introduction to Ufology
A worldwide overview of Ufology intended for the non-major. The course covers possible ancient UFOs along with a modern timeline of the major UFO cases.

UFO 201 (3) Historical Ufology to 1946
In-depth study of historical Ufology covering ancient texts that could be interpreted as UFOs, ancient stories, as well as historical interpretations of phenomenon such as fairies that could be interpreted in modern times as alien beings.

UFO 202 (3) Ufology 1941-1973
An overview of Ufology in the nascent years paralleling Richard Dolan’s “UFOs and the national security State” which covers the government action related to UFOs, a possible cover up and suppression of UFO information.

UFO 203 (3) Ufology 1973-Present
Overview of the major cases in Ufology from 1973 until the present with particular emphasis on governmental involvement.

UFO 220 (3) Roswell
Intensive course on the 1947 Roswell crash which investigates the literature, personalities, witnesses, the MJ-12 documents, and current controversy over the most famous UFO crash of all time.

UFO 340 (3) The Contactee Movement
Exploration of the Contactee movement beginning with George Adamski in the 50’s up until the present time.

UFO 346 (3) The Abductees
Overview of the UFO abductee issue including both academic and popular treatments. Mack, Jacobs, Hopkins, and Strieber will be featured as well as more skeptical authors.

UFO 350 (3) Cover-up and Disclosure
The “Disclosure” movement will be analyzed in detail including the major players and their activities. Students will have a full understanding of Disclosure at the end of this course.

UFO 355 (3) The Debunkers
The Ufological world is a contentious one. The major debunkers such as Klass, Menzel, the United States Air Force, and other major players will be studied. Students will be aware of all major debunkers and their stance by the end of this course.

UFO 401 (3) UFO Hoaxes
There are many acknowledged hoaxes that have been perpetrated on the UFO field, beginning in the fifties and on to the present day. Major acknowledged hoaxes such as Serpo will be studied along with an analysis of the usual hoaxing patterns.

UFO 410 (3) The Inter-dimensional and other hypotheses
The ‘Nuts & Bolts” hypothesis is the most prevalent theory about UFOs, but there are others exploring the possibility of an inter-dimensional component. Proponents of this alternative viewpoint, including authors such as Jacques Vallee, will be studied.

UFO 348 (3) UFO Cults
Many contactees wind up starting religions based on their UFO beliefs. The Raelians, Billy Meier, Heaven’s Gate , Adamski, Bethurum, and will be studied.

UFO 450 (3) Case Studies in Ufology
Selected case studies of the major UFO incidents of the modern era will be discussed. Please see the syllabus for a listing of cases.

UFO 460 (3) Ufological resources
Resources from books to organizations to the Internet will be studied. The student will have a solid grasp of all sources of UFO information by the end of this course.

UFO 465 (3) UFO Personalities: The Players
The UFO field has and has had major players that have influenced the movement over the years. From J. Allen Hynek and Walt Andrus to Steven Greer and John Lear, all have had, for good or bad, a major impact on the field.

UFO 498 (3) Individual Research
Topics for individual research may be negotiated on a quarterly basis between student and faculty.

UFO 499 (3) Thesis

Auxiliary Required Courses for the UFO Major. These courses or their equivalent must be completed in addition to the required credits in the UFO Major. (Source: University of Washington, Seattle, Course Catalog)

BIO-A 201 (5) Introduction to Physical Anthropology
Evolution and adaptation of the human species. Evidence from fossil record and living populations of monkeys, apes, and humans. Interrelationships between human physical and cultural variation and environment; role of natural selection in shaping our evolutionary past, present, and future.

BIO-A 388 (5) Human Fossils and Evolution
Evolution of human anatomy and behavior as adaptations to changing environments. Human fossils: their geological context, age, ecological setting used to reconstruct the evolution of our species during the last six million years of earth history. Prerequisite: BIO A 201

NEAR E 220 (5) Ancient Egypt Culture & Civilization
Surveys the peoples, places and events of the ancient Near East. Examines the cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel with an eye to each culture's cultural contributions. Pays special attention to shared cultural elements as well as distinguishing characteristics of the peoples of these regions.

STAT 220 (5) Basic Statistics
Objectives and pitfalls of statistical studies. Structure of data sets, histograms, means, and standard deviations. Correlation and regression. Probability, binomial and normal. Interpretation of estimates, confidence intervals, and significance tests.

PHIL 115 (5) Practical Reasoning
Introduction to logic emphasizing concepts and methods useful for practical analysis of arguments in everyday contexts; meaning, syllogisms, logical diagrams, inductive and statistical inference, informal fallacies, argument structure, perhaps some beginning symbolic logic.

PHIL 120 (5) Introduction to Logic
Elementary symbolic logic. The development, application, and theoretical properties of an artificial symbolic language designed to provide a clear representation of the logical structure of deductive arguments.

ASTBIO 115 (5) Astrobiology, Life in the Universe
Introduction to the new science of astrobiology, study of the origin and evolution of life on Earth, and the search for microbial and intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. Designed for non-science, liberal arts majors.

ASTR 101 (5) Astronomy
Introduction to the universe, with emphasis on conceptual, as contrasted with mathematical, comprehension. Modern theories, observations; ideas concerning nature, evolution of galaxies; quasars, stars, black holes, planets, solar system.

ESS 102 (5) Space and Space Travel
Explores powering the sun, making of space weather conditions, observations from space and from Earth, Earth's space environment, radiation belts and hazards, plasma storms and auroras, electron beams, spacecraft requirements, tooling up for manned exploration.

ESS 101 (5) Physical Geology
Survey of the physical systems that give the earth its form. Emphasizes the dynamic nature of interior and surface processes and their relevance to mankind and stresses the value of rocks and earth forms in the understanding of past events.

ESS 102 (5) Historical Geology
Historical geology is the study of the evolution of landforms and life-forms through geologic time. Geologic features such as rock types and fossils are used to interpret and date past events. The first third of the course introduces the basic geologic principles underlying historical geology.
<O:p</O:p
 
Dude, that's awesome. I like the multi-disciplinary approach. More and better "modes of inquiry" are needed to subdue this wooly slippery beast.

So where I do register? Is there a work-study option?
 
The courses sound great! There is one thing very important overlooked though. Where is the school going to find all these qualified teachers? Anyone who has been to College kmows that the teacher makes or breaks the course.
 
Schuyler,

It's posts like yours that make me proud to be involved with this show, and these forums. In that one message, you've just done more hard work to help gain some clarity, than Paola has done in her whole time spent playing in this sandbox.

Outstanding, that list is the definition of the word "awesome".

Thanks for your insight and intelligence, it really makes these forums stand above all others, IMO.

dB
 
Ally said:
The courses sound great! There is one thing very important overlooked though. Where is the school going to find all these qualified teachers? Anyone who has been to College knows that the teacher makes or breaks the course.
Click to expand...

Realizing that this course list is a hypothetical mock-up and simply a starting place for discussion, it is still a good point. It is not so much overlooked as it is a next step, just the kind of thing I was hoping would be brought up. I certainly have no illusions that this list or any like it will be implemented anywhere anytime soon. I doubt any recognized and accredited institution would risk its reputation on something like this. Organizations that might be interested are likely ones we would not want to be associated with, such as Exopolitics. It's possibe, but....unlikely. But if so, a model like Phoenix University's online degrees might apply. (Those courses are tough!)

When a new field emerges, where do the teachers come from? Older fields. The background of professors can sometimes be surprising. Franz Boaz, for example, was a well known anthropologist last century who did highly regarded studies in Northwest Native American cultures. His PhD was in chemistry (or physics, I forget) and studied the color of sea water in the North Atlantic. I should imagine that some teachers could come from the field of English, for example, in dealing with UFO 'literature' or sociology to deal with the 'UFO Movement.' Others could be recognized leaders in the field. I attended 'City University' for awhile, which had an MBA program. It hires teachers with Master's degrees who are working 'in the field' of personnel, logistics, IT, etc. I did not find this program satisfactory and dropped it after a few courses, but the fact is it is an accredited institution with the regional authorities (kind of a scam and a story in itself). I think if a working group could come up with a curriculum and tests for it, passing the test with flying colors would be an indication that a person could teach the course.

The course list itself is intended to show the depth of knowledge that someone who claims to be an expert in the field really ought to know. I believe, for example, that someone claiming to be an expert in the Contactee movement ought to know about the planet Clarion, who lives there, what their language and religion are, where it is, and who said so. If you can't identify Aura Rhanes immediately, you are no expert on the Contactee literature and have no business passing yourself off as such.

This course list is debatable. I'm sure there are dozens of opinions on what each course should entail, what ought to be on the reading lists, what the tests should look like, and what constitutes passing. That would be some work. Maybe we could pick one and tear it apart, see if we could get a good 'precis' or course outline.
 
Oh, and the one glaring omission is a course on optical physics, analog and digital image and video analysis. I'll be happy to toss my hat into the ring as the lecturer, and I even have extensive college level teaching experience. :D

dB
 
Nothing like the classes listed were anywhere to be found in my area when I tried college (community college). I might have stayed with it if there were. I took a guitar class, and learned basically nothing.
 
CapnG said:
Interesting idea... one question: what does one do with a B-ufo?
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The same thing you would do with a B.A. in just about anything: What do you do with a B.A. in Anthropology, English, Sociology....etc.? It's been my personal experience that this sort of degree doesn't do one much good either. One of the issues here is that as long as we keep treating Ufology as an avocation and hobby, we will be faced with the Paola's of the world asserting themselves as 'experts' simply by showing up and proclaiming it.
 
Schuyler said:
One of the issues here is that as long as we keep treating Ufology as an avocation and hobby, we will be faced with the Paola's of the world asserting themselves as 'experts' simply by showing up and proclaiming it.
Click to expand...

No argument there. The thing is, since there's ultimately nothing we can know about this topic, setting up a course like this, comprehensive and respectable as it may be, is the equivelent of training to become a surgeon in a world without hospitals...
 
I like that turn of phrase. I think it also portrays a point of view about education that is a legitimate concern. One point of view is that education's purpose is to train people for a profession that will be useful to society, i.e.: If, I, the taxpayer, am going to fund state universities in a way that students do not pay the full cost of their educations themselves, than I want some payback, if not for me personally, than for society in general. It is in my best interests to have trained surgeons available in case I need one. Paying for someone to get a B.A. in English with an emphasis on studying the Romance poets is a little harder for me to understand. Knowing someone who can quote William Blake may have some remote benefit for me, but I'd be hard pressed to know what that is. Of course, even suggesting we do away with Departments of English is sacrilege of the highest order. Besides, there may be some value in teaching students how to put together a grammatical sentence, though from what i've seen, that kind of begs the question.

However, the idea that we can never know anything, really, about UFOs is also a bit of a stretch. There is an enormous body of literature available. George M. Eberhart's bibliography titled 'UFOs and the extraterrestrial contact movement' alone has over 15,000 entries and it's over 20 years old. One of the definitions of a profession is that it has a recognized body of knowledge behind it. We may not be able to know what is going on, REALLY, but we can certainly know an awfully lot about what people think is going on. In other words, it is certainly a legitimate area of study from a sociological point of view.

It is also a subject with a lot of interest by the populace in general. The bad thing is that the people who set themselves up as experts frequently are not. A program like this (but not this one exactly, of course) would have some benefit from that standpoint, and also from the standpoint of people who are interested in learning more themselves.

All I'm trying to do here is explore ways to get beyond a Cerificate of Galactic Ambassadorship to something that at least has a chance of some lasting value.
 
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