Florida College Offering a Dolly Parton Class

Country Music Icon Dolly Parton is at top of the list when it comes to the things that are precious and treasured on this Earth. To prove that point, a Florida college is offering a course about Dolly to teach people how to act right. I'm serious.

Professor Grace Lager at Eckerd College teaches students about media, gender, class and race according to southernliving.com. In Lager's new class about Dolly Parton, she's teaching students about "the power of the country music icon's authenticity and how her example can help people better relate to each other."

She's using Dolly Parton as the model of how to act right, and in my opinion she couldn't have chosen a better candidate.

She got the idea for the course after hearing Dolly Parton's America, a 2019 podcast from NPR.

Leger tells southernliving.com -

"I was blown away by the cultural issues they were covering—gender, class, race—and that Dolly Parton was somebody who was able to address these issues through her music."

So, what exactly do students learn in "Dolly Parton 101"?

In the new course at Eckerd College, students study Parton's lyrics, Dolly's evolution of style, her unique brand of feminism, and they also learn about all of the Country Music Icon's "philanthropic endeavors".

I definitely think there's a lot to learn with what is mentioned above, but there's something else taught in the Dolly class that personally I think could be the most beneficial to students.

You see, Dolly Parton brilliantly comes across as just a simple country girl, and no doubt, she is that. However, don't get confused. Dolly Parton is usually always the smartest person in the room. And, you're paying attention, she'll make sure you know that, although you won't realize it until days later.

One example of this that students study is something called "Dollitics", in where Dolly "appears political while somehow managing to avoid politics".

I for one certainly think this world would be a kinder, more understanding place if we all acted a little more like Dolly.