THE MARCH OF ACADEMIC STANDARDS – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:   Let us feel only sympathy for the backbreaking work that our college students do, challenged each day to expand their intellects. 

EVANSTON, Ill., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Northwestern University in suburban Chicago said 16 students are learning about history through the lens of the AMC series "Mad Men."

Michael Allen, the history professor teaching the freshman seminar, said the students enrolled in "Consumerism and Social Change in Mad Men America, 1960-1963," are learning about topics including the beginnings of social reform movements by watching and analyzing the first season of the series about an advertising agency, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

"It shows the way the 1950s and 1960s blend together and how they related to each other," Allen said of the series.

COMMENTS:  $52,000 a year.

December 1, 2010