Teaching Rational Thinking in the Social Problems Course

During most of the twentieth century in most sociology departments the social problems course has been one of the basics of the discipline. Social problems is a bread and butter course offered to undergraduates who often have no long-range commitment to sociology as a field of professional study. It has never enjoyed academic stature (Mills, 1943). In the 1890s, Harvard professor Francis Peabody taught a social problems course nicknamed by his students Peabo's drainage, drunkenness, and divorce; more recently a critic has labeled the course nuts, sluts, and perverts (Liazos, 1972). The social problems course rarely provides a cumulative knowledge base for the remaining sociology curriculum, yet it continues to be popular.