Humanity's Curriculum

Ever since its founding, Toli University has been home to a wide curriculum that explores humanity's bite sized triumphs and sundry failings. This toli monger has always aimed to deliver a dynamic conversation on education. Herewith a sampling from our course catalog

Guide to the Catalog — Humanity's Curriculum — Course Catalog — Playlist

Guide to the Catalog

You might encounter whiplash
   when you embark on some of these courses.
This is as intended,
   our rigorous emphasis on minutiae and absurdity will trouble the soul.
Indeed, you may feel that some of these classes are incorrectly classified at first glance.
Rest assured that this folksonomie
   has been tested with thousands of students.
We guarantee perplexion
   and, of course, satisfaction if you stick with the curriculum.

Music is an integral part of our method,
You will often find a playlist that comments on,
Or advances the core texts that we study.
Some of our instructors even lead with the playlist
As part of their immersive pedagogy.
It lubricates the slices of life and leavens the hatchet jobs.
If all else fails, we suggest you listen to the playlist.
Shuffle serendipity has been known to impart peace of mind
And palliative relief to the modern condition of mankind.

We have found that a comfortable unease is best for a proper education.
Off kilter, dislocation sharpens the edges of the cultural memory knife.
Do feel free to sample the other offerings in our catalog of delights
They are often only one click away, a stone’s throw
No finger is equal, as the old saying goes.

Humanity's Curriculum

Humanity knows no boundaries, goes the Akan proverb
This is the season of migration to the land of concern
We mine the uncertain terrain of the torrid zone
Secure in the knowledge that no one stands alone
Probing the outer reaches of the liminal landscape during the journey
Always traveling light, this modern traveler, with bags at the ready

An exiled soul, a searcher in pursuit of word fugitives
Scribbling furiously, and engaged in crafting narratives
A mandate to challenge perceptions, and devise new grace notes
Social interplay and cultural observations are the favored antidotes
Established early, I staked my claim and purpose as chief toli monger
Charged by the muse to write further chapters for the books of Nima

Internally displaced, the ellipses and omissions are also necessary
The gaps have meaning, as all blind spots do, and add to the commentary
In this way, the skeptic's credo applies to the normalcy project
And draws a light on what we choose to remember and to forget
While I refine continuously, I pay my soul insurance premium
The course catalog: my jaundiced take on humanity's curriculum

Course Catalog

Earth Sciences and Biology

• The Mosquito Principle
• Herd Immunity
• Anatomy Lessons
• Top Public Health Interventions

Social Studies and Etiquette

• Shame Cultures
• Disturbing Tranquility
• Masks of Civility
• Social Studies
• Eating People is Wrong
• A Taxonomy of Useful Idiots
• The Physics of Shame

Law and History

• The Justice and the Secretary
• Truth and Reconciliation
• The New Warfare

Home Sciences

• The Dishwasher Situation
• After Tom Sawyer
• The Closing Ceremony

Economics

• A Debt Foretold
• The Economics of Whimsy
• Inflation Calypso
• Mindless Speculation
• Home Economics
• Structural Adjustments
• A Seminal Lunacy

Mathematics

• Conundrum 65: Taxi Driver Braking Style
• A Taxonomy of Useful Idiots

Government and Communication

• How To Hand Over To Yourself
• Electoral Fictions
• An African Leader Bestiary
• Strange Bedfellows and the Journalistic impulse

Business and Marketing

• The New Formula
• The Ziploc Factor
• New and Improved
• Defensive Accounting

Philosophy

• The Skeptics Credo
• Dilemmas
• Wist
• Tradition and Modernity
• The Last Philosophers

Design, Aesthetics and Material Culture

• Type and Faces
• Bags and Stamps
• The Secret Life of Presentation Pete
• Kente, Lace and Champagne

Political Science

• Inauguration a l'Africaine
• Manifest Destiny
• On the Importance of Biting Satire
• On Political Theatre and Politics as Theatre

Linguistics

• Uneasy Phrases
• Huhudious (or Silly Season)
• Erustication and the Italian Job
• Technical Arteriosclerosis
• A Pandemic Dictionary

Rogues, Gremlins, and Parasites

• He of The Little Green Book
• Angola
• Excellent Discussions
• The Codes of Martial Music
• June 4th
• The Wages of Thermidor
• Reverse Ferret
• Cooking Session
• The Bad Seed
• The Corruption Tango
• The Conqueror's Catechism

Music

• On Musical Obsession
• Rhythm of Loss
• 66 Ways to Franco
• Vibing with Abbey Lincoln
• The Second Wave
• Friends Today, Enemies Tomorrow
• A Soul Jazz Thing
• Janet and the Importance of Bubblegum
• The Dark Keys

Literature

• Poetry as Cultural Memory
• The Ways of the Porcupine
• The Great Longing
• The Art of Omission
• Voices Inside (Things Fall Apart)
• Heart of Darkness
• Best Left Unread

Operations Research and Game Theory

• The Great Game
• Shell Games
• The Game of the Rough Beast

Rhetoric

• Recent Non-Specific General Threats
• Dear Mr Surgeon General Re: Meatpacking Plants
• Render / Rendition
• By Way of Ionesco

Social Anthropology

• Bloodbath, South Carolina
• Waiting for Godot (Khayelitsha)
• Catford Bridge
• Reading the Haitian Landscape
• Legacies (Munhango to Kennebunkport)
• Strange Days
• The Joy of Small Things

The Culture of Technology

• Cultural Sensitivity in Technology
• Frisson de Folksonomie
• The Dining Philosophers Problem
• Version Hell Revisited
• Minutiae
• On Recommendation Systems
• Disaster Recovery

Ethnography

• Lamppost
• African Ceremonies
• The Old Man Who Lives in the Park
• Frank and Frances (or 500 Steps)
• On the Local Bus
• Back There Yonder
• Guy Talk
• What Paradise Have We Lost?

Geography of the Mind

• The Books of Nima
• The New Epicenter
• Bullet From a Gun
• Road Trip
• Inman Square Still Life
• Koforidua Fever (or Naki does Ghana)

Modern Travelers

• Identity Theft
• Identity Crisis
• Of No Fixed Abode
• No One is Coming
• Dislocation
• Internally Displaced
• Normalcy Prohibition
• The Least of Us
• Goody Two Shoes
• Ellipses
• Internal Exile

Religion

• Articles of Faith

Nostalgia Studies and Culinary Cultures

• A Taste of Africa
• The Golden Yam
• Kenkey Bounty
• Domedo
• Comfort Food and Rare Groove

Psychology

• The Necessity of Permanent Outrage
• Trouble Ticket
• Tickling John Bull's Lizard Brain
• Hypertext Dreams

Engineering

• People, Processes and Things
• Resilience and Adaptability
• Empire State of Mind
• The Low End Theory of Networks
• On the Significance of Social Software
• The Unloved HTML Button and Other Folktales
• Root Cause Analysis

Catastrophe Studies

• To Make the Road Fearful
• Close Encounters
• The Wound
• Naming Conventions
• Heidelberg Tavern Massacre

African Studies

• Africa 1966
• Africa 1989
• Drum Magazine Ghana 1969
• Ghanaian Fictions
• Lagos 1975
• Africa 1999
• Talking Drums

Labor, Capital and Office Civilizations

• Never Never Man
• Version Hell
• A Resource Action
• The France IBM Connection
• Restructuring Activities

Grief Studies

• The Laws of Grief
• Another Zoom Funeral
• Ode to Betty Brown
• Dela
• A Splinter of Ice
• The Searcher and other Dirges
• Uncle Mike
• Grief House
• Doves
• A Shadow's Burden
• Gee

Surveys

• The Toli Theme
• The Torrid Zone

Sensory Processing

• Touch
• Taste
• Liminal
• The Color of Memory

Folklore

• Nuts and Bolts
• The Princess and the Brown Sugar
• The Prince and the Honey
• The Traveling Salesman
• The Prime Minister's Coinage
• The Tale of the Lost Stories
• For Want of a Bolt
• Soul Insurance

Classics

• Things Fall Apart
• Observers are Worried
• In a Covidious Time

Humanity's Curriculum, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. Registration in now open. (spotify version)

• Humanity (Love the way it should be) by Prince Lincoln
• Proper Eduction by Grand Puba
• Black Soul by Burning Spear
• Eri Okan (Conscience) by King Sunny Ade
• We Must Be in Love by Charlie Hunter
• All Fingers are not Equal by Chief Dr. Oliver De Coque
• Equal Rights by Peter Tosh
• The Makings of You by Curtis Mayfield
• Abide With Me by Thelonious Monk
• Proper Eduction by Mikey Dread
• Each One (Must) Teach One by Courtney Pine
• Christo Redentor by Donald Byrd
• Reflection by Prince
• The Makings of You (Live) by Curtis Mayfield
• Education Wrap by Community People
• We Must Be in Love by Sam Fribush Organ Trio ft Charlie Hunter
• Soul Education by Jamiroquai

...

Timing is everything
Observers are worried

File under: humour, satire, culture, education, observation, perception, writing, Social Living, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log. Concept: February 28, 2021; April 14, 2021