It's a Great Day for Academia as Harvard is Finally Adding the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce Relationship to the Curriculum
Noted intellectual William F. Buckley once famously quipped, “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 people on the faculty of Harvard University.” And he said it 50 years ago, when classes at Harvard was still likely being conducted by the same academics who taught Jack and Bobby Kennedy. And who would possibly would have also gone on to educate Barack Obama, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Conan O'Brien, Natalie Portman and Ryan Fitzpatrick, for all he knew. I mean, they definitely would've taught Ted "The Unabomber" Kaczynski, who while he was no barrel of laughs, knew how to build a letter bomb like you read about. Which is to say, like his letters' recipients never got to read.
So while Buckley - who admittedly was a Yale man and therefore pretty salty to begin with - might have had disdain for the Harvard of his day, he never got to live to see the heights that great institution has achieved today. If he had, he'd be singing a different tune, I assure you:
Source - There's a new Harvard course covering all things Taylor Swift -- and yes, that means her relationships, including her Mr. Right Now, Travis Kelce … so says the professor who's teaching the class.
One of Harvard's English professors, Stephanie Burt, joined us Tuesday on "TMZ Live" to discuss the class she'll be heading up next semester called 'Taylor Swift and Her World' -- which she made very clear will put an emphasis on the literary merit behind T-Swift's art. …
As she explains to us, Taylor's work/fandom are very much worthy of study.
In fact, because her personal life is so tied into her songwriting, that means who she dates will get some attention in this class. …
And, if it wasn't obvious already … there's a ton of interest in this new Harvard course. As Professor Burt tells us, there are already hundreds of people who've signed up for the Spring.
You would have to be the worst kind of cynic to say an institution of higher learning shouldn't be teaching courses on Taylor Swift or calling this a blow off class or a waste of time or whatever. Education should be all about studying the world around us, as well as our perceptions of our place in it. And who can deny Taylor has had a profound impact on both. To not study her is like not studying science, mathematics, engineering, or philosophy. Her catchy blend of Country and Pop and her bittersweet romantic ballads have shaped our existence to the point that to ignore her work would be like not studying the sun. Or life itself.
And you have to admit, Professor Burt has an excellent point. Swift's music is directly impacted by her relationships. They're the inspiration for her genius. I doubt Harvard is still covering Shakespeare (based on the Harvard grads I worked with in the court system, I don't think they teach anything), but the Bard's dating situation would be irrelevant when you're discussing King Lear or The Tempest or whatever. But to not understand how T-Swizzle has loved and lost is to not understand her art. And how it's shaped the world we live in.
According to Harvard's own figures, it has graduated eight US Presidents, 49 Nobel laureates, 369 Rhodes Scholars, 9 Turing laureates, seven Fields medals winners, 188 living billionaires and Francis. Who probably is not a supporter of Kelce's inclusion in his alma mater's curriculum:
But at long last, the finest school in the world is finally teaching something actually worth learning. And that is how Taylor Swift and her current boyfriend are getting along. Well worth studying for anyone who hopes to be the world leader, scientist, business mogul, philosopher, artist or blogger of our future. And certainly well worth what it's costing their parents: