Long on Talk, Short on Solutions
RC Students Sounds Off on LHBS
By Elana Green (NI), Associate Editor
Issue date: 10/14/08 Section: News
Many students felt that these sessions were helpful. In one of the most positive reviews I've heard, a student commented that these classes gave "students the opportunity to demonstrate the huge diversity of opinions within a section…on everything from what people expect from Skydecks to what people feel constitutes the boundaries of what's appropriate for classroom discussion." For some sections, the LHBS sessions were a much needed opportunity to, as one student put it, "Force discussions that were happening in private into the open…so they could be dealt with quickly and efficiently before they grew into something more insidious."
But others felt that these classes were repetitive of topics we discussed during our very first days at HBS and could have easily been condensed into a shorter period of time. In fact, when the second class came around, I heard many students groaning about having to sit through another 80 minutes of LHBS.
Even for those who valued the LHBS classes, one sticking point remained: while the classes were an excellent vehicle for generating interesting discussion, they did very little to help the sections resolve the issues that were raised.
This problem resonated even louder in the third and fourth LHBS classes, which centered around sensitivity to diversity-related issues (for lack of better terminology). In the third class, a group of professional actors acted out scenes that demonstrated how prejudices can surface in the workplace and in class. In the first scene, a group of bankers prepared for a conference call; their seemingly mundane conversation was filled with biases against several minority groups. In the second scene, the setting was the HBS classroom, with the actors playing the roles of professor and students. This time, they acted out a scenario where a white, male student said of a black, female protagonist in a Finance case, "She's a b*tch!" After each of these scenes, the section was given a chance to challenge the actors, who stayed in character the entire time, about their behavior and briefly discuss the issues. The skits were followed up with further discussion in the fourth LHBS class later that week.
But others felt that these classes were repetitive of topics we discussed during our very first days at HBS and could have easily been condensed into a shorter period of time. In fact, when the second class came around, I heard many students groaning about having to sit through another 80 minutes of LHBS.
Even for those who valued the LHBS classes, one sticking point remained: while the classes were an excellent vehicle for generating interesting discussion, they did very little to help the sections resolve the issues that were raised.
This problem resonated even louder in the third and fourth LHBS classes, which centered around sensitivity to diversity-related issues (for lack of better terminology). In the third class, a group of professional actors acted out scenes that demonstrated how prejudices can surface in the workplace and in class. In the first scene, a group of bankers prepared for a conference call; their seemingly mundane conversation was filled with biases against several minority groups. In the second scene, the setting was the HBS classroom, with the actors playing the roles of professor and students. This time, they acted out a scenario where a white, male student said of a black, female protagonist in a Finance case, "She's a b*tch!" After each of these scenes, the section was given a chance to challenge the actors, who stayed in character the entire time, about their behavior and briefly discuss the issues. The skits were followed up with further discussion in the fourth LHBS class later that week.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Amike
posted 10/19/08 @ 2:41 PM EST
Why does the front page look so bad? No images. Not much content. What happened?
Post a Comment