Should Goucher Require a Course on Satire?

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The Goucher community should seriously consider requiring every Goucher student and administrator to take a course on satire as an art form and type of societal/political commentary. 

In our modern, hyper-political, online, art filled, interconnected world, there is more than ever a need to have the skill to distinguish satire and understand its intentions. Goucher is a school that is very art focused and has its share of art on campus that I frankly do not understand. We are also a politically charged school that has a long history of activism. Goucher is a global school and there are many forms of satire that spread across borders and cultures. We have a large number of international students and have a 100% study abroad program. Especially on our unique campus, both administrators and students would benefit from taking a course on satire.

What is Satire? Robert C. Elliott defines Satire in his Britannica contribution as “an artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, parody, caricature, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to inspire social reform.” All art is ripe for interpretation and misinterpretation and none more so than satire. I would argue that it is both the greatest and most boring form of comedy. And like most jokes, if it needs to be explained it can ruin the joke.

There are many ways such a satire course could work. It could be like the required Title IX training in the form of a short online course. It could be a set of lectures by our wonderful art and political science professors. Or as this college is looking to have intergenerational full semester courses, we could do the same with this idea. There are many generations between our students and Edenwald residents which our current administration fills the gaps. This could be an opportunity to build more connections between the often disconnected parts of our community.

2024 is also a year with elections happening across the globe. Over a hundred countries such as India, the European Union, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have/will hold large scale elections. In this global political landscape of change there is a lot of political and societal commentary, much of it is in the form of satire. In the Ath, we currently have a collection of political ephemera on display for a reason.

In an era of declining literacy, with more people failing to understand irony and satire, this is the time to guarantee that Goucher’s “global changemakers” understand these basic parts of media. Implementing this will help expand our incredible brand in new and interesting directions.

Tying together Art, Language learning, English, Political Science into a required interdisciplinary class fits well into our existing liberal arts brand.

What do you think? Do our administrators understand satire sufficiently, and if not should the college force them to join us in a class on it? Do you understand satire and irony? Do your friends? Do your friends’ friends comprehend satire? Should everyone be required to take a course as described here? If you have thoughts please share them with me, the Provost & Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Elaine Meyer-Lee, Dean Smith, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies Dr. Isabel Moreno-Lopez, and if you see him maybe President Kent might have thoughts. I know he is busy addressing Miriam Katowitz (the chair of the board of trustees financial committee)’s impractical idea of reintroducing the dance requirement for all students.

-Max Ravnitzky, ’28

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