underwater basket weaving
{{short description|Humorous academic idiom}}
Underwater basket weaving is an idiom referring pejoratively to supposedly useless or absurd college or university courses and often generally to refer to a perceived decline in educational standards.Tuckett, Alan: [https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/may/13/furthereducation.uk4 Underwater basket weaving]. The Guardian, 13 May 2003{{cite web|title=The New (Olde) Reed Almanac|url=http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/december2011/articles/features/almanac/almanac6.html|magazine=Reed Magazine|access-date=26 February 2015}}{{cite web|title=15 bizarre college courses|url=http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/photos/15-bizarre-college-courses/underwater-basket-weaving|website=mnn.com|publisher=mnn holding|access-date=26 February 2015}}
The term also serves as an intentionally humorous generic answer to questions about an academic degree. It is also used to humorously refer to any non-academic elective course, specifically one that does not count towards any graduation requirements.
Possible origin of the phrase
File:Soaking reeds for basket weaving.gif
In weaving willow baskets, a trough of water is needed in which to soak the dried willow rods. They are then left to stand until pliable and ready to be used in weaving. The weaving is, however, usually not done under water (see counterexample below).[http://www.kew.org/ksheets/willows.html#baskets Basket-making materials: Rattans and Willows] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129212607/http://www.kew.org//ksheets/willows.html#baskets |date=2009-01-29 }}. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Information Sheet C6 An issue of The American Philatelist from 1956 refers to an Alaskan village where "Underwater basket weaving is the principal industry of the employables among the 94 Eskimos here. By way of explanation – the native reeds used in this form of basketry are soaked in water and the weavers create their handiwork with their hands and raw materials completely submerged in water throughout the process of manufacture".[https://books.google.com/books?id=sxodAAAAIAAJ The American Philatelist v.70], American Philatelic Association, 1956
Early use
The phrase in its pejorative sense has been used since at least the mid-1950s. According to a 1953 article in the Boston Globe on "Hepster Lingo", "Any snap course in school is 'underwater basket weaving.{{'"}} In a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times in 1956, a correspondent bemoaned an alleged decline in academic standards among college football programs and mentioned "majoring in underwater basket weaving, or the preparation and serving of smorgasbord, or, particularly at Berkeley, the combined course of anatomy and panty-raiding".JUNIUS, South Pasadena [https://archive.today/20120720120016/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/445734022.html?dids=445734022:445734022&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&date=Jun+04,+1956&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=College+'Pro'+Football+Hit&pqatl=google College Pro Football Hit]. Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1956 The following year, an article in the National Review mentioned that "the bored students in the educationists' courses call those dreary subjects 'underwater basket-weaving courses{{'"}},Russell Kirk: [https://books.google.com/books?id=1jcQAAAAIAAJ A Stranglehold on Education]. National Review 1957 and another year on a newspaper column noted that "One seaside university is bowing to the stern educational demands of the times by eliminating its popular course in underwater basket weaving".Fletcher Knebel: [http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0312A&L=ads-l&P=R4008 'Potomac Fever' column] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029173908/http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0312A&L=ads-l&P=R4008 |date=2007-10-29 }}. Appleton Post Crescent, May 14, 1958 An article in the Daily Collegian at Penn State University in 1961 refers to a parody in which "a typical Miami coed majoring in underwater basket weaving was interviewed".Rabe, Diane. [http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=DCG/1961/09/28&EntityId=Ar00103 Sunshine Scholars Mimed at Pep Rally]. Daily Collegian. September 28, 1961 An article from 1976 refers to football players so dumb that they had to take underwater basket weaving,Black, Darrell. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4jsn3_VEvBsC Brawn, and brain]Rome News-Tribune, January 21, 1976, Rome, Georgia {{dead link|date=January 2019}} and another 1976 article refers to underwater basket-weaving as "an old old family joke".Hazel Geissler. [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=G-ULAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jlgDAAAAIBAJ&dq=underwater-basket%20weaving&pg=6773%2C89774 Prints Framed, Draperies Hung] Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Florida, March 16, 1976
Current use
In recent years, many subjects in the humanities have adopted scientific methodologies under the category of social sciences. Some of the courses offered in these subjects have drawn criticism; for instance, an op-ed expressed concern over the lack of rigor and scientific relevancy in coursework at the University of Minnesota.Howard Root: [http://www.startribune.com/no-hard-sciences-then-no-job-offer/255837021/ No hard sciences? Then no job offer]. Star Tribune April 1, 2014 Such criticism has been accused of unfairly stereotyping the social sciences as underwater basket weaving subjects.[http://www.mndaily.com/opinion/editorials/2014/04/23/underwater-basket-weaving-isnt-worthless Underwater basket weaving isn't worthless]. Minnesota Daily April 24, 2014
Dave Ramsey, American personal finance writer and radio host, has used the self-invented term "German Polka History" to describe university degree programs that are unlikely to result in a career and which he thus advises people against pursuing. He uses the term along with a degree in "Left-Handed Puppetry" as an umbrella description to avoid singling any specific degree for ridicule.Ramsey, Dave and Rachel Cruze (2014). Smart Money, Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money. Ramsey Press, {{ISBN|1937077632}}The Dave Ramsey Show, "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMweO8PSmts What College Degree Should I Get?]" via YouTube Published on Dec 12, 2015; accessed April 08, 2017
Notable uses
{{quote|Some of the boys she knew from college were trying to dodge the draft by taking graduate courses, "underwater basket weaving and things like that," as Vonda contemptuously put it.|Rick Atkinson, The Long Gray Line}}
{{quote|This is no surprise, as normal office job functions generally require little knowledge of underwater basket-weaving, 19th century Hungarian clog art, or other things of academic interest.|Jacob Lund Fisker, Early Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial Independence}}
The phrase was used during the Vietnam War era to describe the sort of major that many young men who would otherwise not have entered college undertook to escape the draft.Rick Atkinson: [https://books.google.com/books?id=hqFOat4s96sC The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966]. Published by Henry Holt and Co., 1999. {{ISBN|0-8050-6291-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8050-6291-5}}. 608 pages US Senator Gordon L. Allott referred in 1968 to "the situation that we were in after World War II where we had universities setting up courses in underwater basket weaving, and all this sort of thing".[https://books.google.com/books?id=bRA4AAAAIAAJ Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Committee on Appropriations]. United States Congress, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Published by U.S. G.P.O., 1968 Senator Robert Byrd used the phrase in 1969 when questioning the use of funds to offer professional training to Cuban refugees.[https://books.google.com/books?id=UAZtAAAAMAAJ Second Supplemental Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1969] United States Congress, Senate Committee on Appropriations The University of Portsmouth had a joke syllabus for underwater basket weaving on the Technology faculty pages,{{cite web | url=http://techfaculty.port.ac.uk/tud/db/UnivPort/level_3/1SSHLS3UBW.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706054529/http://techfaculty.port.ac.uk/tud/db/UnivPort/level_3/1SSHLS3UBW.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=2010-07-06 | title=Underwater Basket Weaving}} and another joke syllabus proposal was posted by a University of Central Arkansas student magazine.Shinnie, Ferri: [https://web.archive.org/web/20071103014910/http://www.uca.edu/divisions/academic/honors/pub/vino/0203/vino21_4.1/newDegree.htm New degree to be offered] The Vino 2003 Volume 21 - Issue 4
US punk band NOFX referred to an underwater basket weaving course in their song "Anarchy Camp".{{cite web |title=NOFX - Anarchy Camp Lyrics |url=http://www.metrolyrics.com/anarchy-camp-lyrics-nofx.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708081613/http://www.metrolyrics.com/anarchy-camp-lyrics-nofx.html|archive-date=2017-07-08|url-status=unfit |website=MetroLyrics |access-date=18 October 2017}}
{{Quote|text=Moral of the story: neither writing “theoretical nuclear intergalactic business physics” nor “underwater basket weaving” will give you an edge in the admissions process, so just be honest!|author=MIT}}
The phrase appears in the MIT application process as a humorous example suggesting students should simply state their current interests.{{Cite web|title=MIT Admissions|url=https://mitadmissions.org/apply/firstyear/getting-started/|access-date=2022-02-14|website=MIT Admissions |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|language=en-US}}
As a taught course
Since 1980, Reed College in Portland, Oregon has occasionally offered an underwater basket weaving class during Paideia, its festival of learning that offers informal, non-credit courses.{{Cite web |url=http://www.reed.edu/orientation/pdfs/2008_Obook_Small.pdf |title=Reed Orientation August 22–September 1, 2008 |access-date=2008-10-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007012539/http://www.reed.edu/orientation/pdfs/2008_Obook_Small.pdf |archive-date=2008-10-07 |url-status=dead }}
The Student Resource Center at the University of Arizona offered a submerged snorkeling basket-weaving course in spring 1998.Michelle J. Jones: [https://web.archive.org/web/19991008092827/http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/91/64/08_1_m.html Build your own basket... underwater] Arizona Daily Wildcat, November 24, 1997Watery Weaving 101 - Frustration turns pupil into basket case. Arizona Daily Star, April 14, 1998 In early 2009, a Rutgers University scuba diving instructor offered a one-off course.Sacharow, Fredda: [http://news.rutgers.edu/focus/issue.2009-02-02.4357742289/article.2009-02-03.1326955700 Recession buster: A Rutgers course for $1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208174025/http://news.rutgers.edu/focus/issue.2009-02-02.4357742289/article.2009-02-03.1326955700 |date=2009-02-08 }} Focus, February 4, 2009[http://www1.recreation.rutgers.edu/CourseCatalog/classView.asp?id=1438 Underwater Basket Weaving, Dollar Menu, Rutgers Recreation] Underwater Basket Weaving is a trademark of the US Scuba Center Inc.,[http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=75217070 United States Patent and Trademark Office Serial No. 75217070] which offers a specialty class designed to improve or more fully enjoy diving skills from which participants can "take home a memorable souvenir."[http://www.usscuba.com/SpecialtyClasses.html#Underwater%20Basket%20Weaving US Scuba Center Inc.: Specialty Classes]
As an April Fools joke, Coursera offered an online course on underwater basket weaving on April 1, 2013. The class was supposed to "consist of short lecture and demonstration videos, between 8 and 10 minutes in length, short quizzes, and practical weaving exercises."{{Cite web |last=Dunne |first=Phineas |date=2013-03-31 |title=Underwater Basketweaving with Phineas Dunne |url=https://www.coursera.org/course/basketweave |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180309203120/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Vvyu99GxA |archive-date=2018-03-09 |access-date=2022-04-06 |website=Coursera|via=YouTube}}