Ciao!

Oh, how I envy you ;-)

Well, I am teaching 300-level course this semester, and I required 5 books for the course! Some of them hate me, I am sure, lol. One of the things that surprised me (although I expected it) was almost no prior knowledge of the region discussed in my class. I am even more surprised by the fact that the majority of the class are polisci majors, but still even as seniors or juniors don't have a clue what are political parties, the differences between presidential and parliamentarian system, between interest articulation and aggregation, etc. What do they learn in the courses of our department in the first two or even three years? So, it's a challenge to teach a class like mine b/c it is introductory as well as advanced at the same time. Anyway, I digressed. I wanted to talk to you about books for 105. I still haven't received the one I ordered to look at it, and the bookstore wants us to order books by Thursday?! What books are you looking at? How can we communicate? Do you a messenger or sth of the sort? N.

I wonder if it would be wiser for the department to require PSCI 100 before one takes the area specific courses. Because that is where the differences in concepts are introduced.

As for books. I have not gotten any of the ones I ordered from the publishers. So I won't be able to make my decision by Thursday. (aside from the fact that my mind is occupied with other things right now but selecting books). But it is certainly what I like about teaching my own course - I can get free copies for review. :-)

I agree, the department *should* require PSCI 100 before the 300-level courses. That's how it was at my undergrad university. I plan on telling my students that if they've not taken 100, they should consider dropping.

I must digress as an undergrad. We don't like all those books simply because of the cost (especially if we won't get anything back for them). And we don't exactly like reading 100 pages a week because we do have other classes and, most likely, jobs to tend to. I know I sound like a whiner, but it's just the way the majority of us see things. Don't get me started on how my religion book got a new version. I don't think the Bible, Torah, Koran, or the Tipitikas changed much over time, so we don't need a new version.

To Nenad: sorry to hear that most junior and senior poli sci MAJORS could not tell you basic things about politics. One of my frustrations lately is the history majors around here. "Wait, you just asked who the social studies education majors are. You forgot history." Or another good one from an English major: "Is political science considered social studies too?" I just want to scream when I hear those things.

I can respect that, Kara. But my total pages come to about 800, for 12 weeks of class. That's not too bad. When I took 300-level classes at CMU, we read 4-5 books for them. Yes, people are taking other courses & working, but there should be a difference between 300-level & 100-level.

Also, generally, 100-level courses have shorter readings because they're covering more basic topics in a condensed time. There's just too much information in there. The books for 300-level courses, because they're more focused, they are actually quicker/easier to read (there's less concepts in them, most of it's just building argument).

I try very much to find cheap books, and use it as a criteria in book selection, along w/ length. My books new would cost $85 (used, probably half that). I think that's fair. And thanks to eBay, you can get more money back these days than when I was an undergrad.

Kara, I recently had to face a dilemma. I am looking for a textbook for a new class I will be teaching. I want my class to be interesting and contemporary (politics changes a lot and quickly). also in my experience of teaching I have recognized a few gaps in students knowledge that I am afraid I will run into again when teaching the new course. This will make things harder for me. So I am looking for a textbook that stimulates thinking but also provides much information on basics. I have unfortunately encountered that the best books come at a high price. And since I want to use two books, you can end up real quick with a high bill for class. I am now waiting to see the books I have ordered to make my decision, but I might end up choosing a more expensive book, simply because it fits better my teaching needs. Being a teacher is not easy here. I am feeling bad and wish I could get cheaper books. But I also need quality - and if this is in a more expensive book, then so be it.

To Miguel and Melli: I can see your points of view and you're right, I would rather have an interesting, expensive book rather than a cheap, boring one. And I guess as long as the book is used, it's not that bad. I've had many classes where I've had to buy these books and I never opened them once. Not because I didn't do the reading, but because the professors never really assigned us anything in those particular books (I guess they forgot we paid $45 for a book that teaches us how to write poetry). And I know it could be a lot worse. The nursing students around here are encouraged to keep all of their major science based books which cost about $100+ new and the publishers make new books every year it seems. So these poor people have to pay over $500 for books and if they're lucky they will get maybe ten percent of that back.