Anyone listen to Teaching Company lectures on tape?

Post Reply New Topic

Ever listen to Teaching Company lectures on tape? Basically they are just recorded college lectures that you can listen to at home. To me this is what college was meant to be. No talk about frats, alpha males, binges, and hook-ups. Just pure pursuit of wisdom. It truly feels like the Platonic academy. I've learned far more from these lectures than I ever did in class. I think youtube has a lot of free lectures from colleges.

Anyone ever listen to TTC?

Wannabe autodidacts like myself are always looking for these kinds of resources. What have you learned thus far using The Teaching Company? You may also want to try ted.com, the thinking man's youtube.

I don't know if people nowadays have the kind of discipline and commitment that once produced the Ben Franklins, DaVincis, or Edisons of before. Renaissance men who are every bit, if not more so, knowledgeable, than the stuffy academics churned out by the degree factories.

I've learned a great deal about just about every topic, just take a look at the breadth at their website http://www.teach12.com/storex/courses.a ... le&fMode=s

I mostly borrowed from my local library

I've heard a lot of good stuff about the Teaching Company and hope someday to hear some of their mathematics stuff - namely the number theory and math history related stuff. It would be cool if they had these at my local library, but I doubt it.

As for ted.com, I get sent there a lot, so I've seen quite a few of the lectures and always find them to be less cohesive than I anticipate. Still, it's worth browsing.

Unfortunately, the 'alpha males and binge drinking' is what college is all about, even to a lot of people who are otherwise loads smarter than your stereotypical frat-boy. Slowly and slowly I see the notion of 'learning for the sake of learning' to be naive and hollow. Perhaps that's also due to the number of people who go into a pre-med program purely because their parents ask them to or because they feel it's the 'best' way to go. Only imagine if those people went and studied what they wanted (even if it's something like philosophy).

Sadly, my experience with the Teaching Company was not as positive. The samples that they sent me were on history, ostensibly since I subscribe to an Archeology trade journal that I requested information on the Teaching Company with. The samples really seemed to turn certain events into politics. Such events were like the fall of the Roman Empire. Never the less, please understand of course that I am not trying to bash anyone who has had a good experience with the company!

If your referencing to the political views of the teaching company lecturers, I found myself in disagreement with them often, and certainly do not agree with the politics of TTC. There is certainly a systematic bias contrary to the usual views found in academia. And I'm a very political person who largely judges everything by political line. Nonetheless I still learned a lot from the lecturers even if at times my blood boiled with rage in disagreement.

I actually prefer teaching to avoid politics as much as possible.