As my time here at Wooster draws to a close, I have had some time to reflect upon the senior Independent Study process.
In theory, one of the best parts about I.S. is that it allows you to draw upon everything youíve ever learned, regardless of subject area, and apply it to whatever you want.
Such a synthesis of knowledge and understanding is the ultimate learning experience.
Papers written for classes tend to be little more than a rehash of whatever has already been written on the subject, but I.S. is different.
By virtue of its sheer size and scope, it can force students to create something that is a least slightly original.
Unfortunately, the way many departments currently handle I.S. discourages students from bringing in material from outside their discipline.
Most departments have a fixed research approach that allows little time for exploring how other disciplines could be incorporated.
In economics, for instance, students must spend so much time and energy analyzing statistics and creating economic models that there is usually not enough time left to examine the history, sociology or psychology behind their topic.
Given that economics is supposed to be a social science, it would make sense for any study economics to incorporate work from other social fields.
Even in the humanities, which tend to have far less rigid approaches to the I.S. process, incorporating material from other subjects is often difficult because advisors usually have very limited knowledge of subjects outside their discipline.
Economists donít know their history and historians donít understand economics, so anyone who wants to combine the two has little guidance.
To make I.S. more interdisciplinary, some departments need to loosen their I.S. requirements to allow work from outside the department to be incorporated.
Furthermore, advising should not be kept within a single department.
While students should have a main advisor, they should be encouraged to touch base with other professors and their second readers should often come from another department.
This would help students incorporate multiple subjects within their I.S. projects and push them to make their projects understandable and applicable to more than a specialized few in their field of study.
I.S. is an amazing (if not sometimes traumatizing) experience; having the freedom to spend an academic year studying whatever you want with professional guidance is an opportunity few people ever get. Academic disciplines are perspectives through which we can examine almost any question.
They should not be straitjackets that forbid students from venturing too far.