Here are some of the passages I found particularly moving/interesting/curious from this past week of blog reading:
Lit. Phil.
After being in Lit. Phil for the past 2 months , i think Ive learned something allot of people don't know to much about themselves. That is to take things and look at them at different perspectives. Maybe that's not even the function of the course but now i find myself asking myself questions within questions of my own. For example, the other day i was just thinking about something non school related. I was thinking about parents weekend and what i needed to do in general. I would say to myself, clean up room. But i would then almost contradict myself and say why exactly am i going to clean my room? Then i could answer it by saying so it makes myself look more mature or something along those lines. Then it would come down to, well i am in college and passing all my classes thus far, i am more mature now rather then back then. But this is all the rest random thoughts i consider and the way i look at them.
Next, i ask my questions about the works i compose for all my different classes. I ask myself, what exactly does the teacher want that will get me an A? These questions help me to think more about myself and what i know deep inside that i don't want to bring up because it will take longer. This knowledge i want to bring up is all the knowledge i need to get a good grade on a paper. A solid thesis, evidence to support your claim, no grammatical errors, proof or rereading. All these we know to do, when it comes time to do it, par seems satisfying because you do not want to take that extra 2 minutes to reread your paper or find a quote to support evidence.
So all in all, i think this course is teaching me about myself which seems to be one of the 3 goals of the course. What do i know, what can i know, based on what can know, what can i do. It seems like i am heading down the right path for achieving these goals.
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Those Who Should Not Teach
First off, none of this post refers to you Professor Michaud.
Growing up, we all have at least one of those teachers that we can not stand, and that for some reason appears to be really unfair and unhelpful when it comes to school work. You click, and you clash, and sometimes you just cant seem to understand what those teachers are asking for. Then there is always the really extreme case when you wonder how the hell this person ever got hired as a professor, and how could they themselves POSSIBLY think that they would make a good professor. I mean I think it's determinable enough that one should know if they are JUST NOT RIGHT for the job. I'm not a professor, but as a student of professors, I think I may be able to underline AT LEAST some key points to knowing whether or not you would make a good professor.
1. Do you like people, specifically young people?
2. Do you like teaching or helping others learn?
3. Are you patient?
4. Do you enjoy the subject which you teach?
5. Do you have ANY idea what you are talking about?.. maybe even the slightest bit?
I mean if you are really impatient with others, I feel that maybe teaching isn't the job for you. Some professors just don't belong.
It is so frustrating when you have an overflowing courseload filled with classes galore, and some of your teachers, they really help you out but SOME... ugh. They are those teachers that try to meet the student halfway, and do their best to profess the material in an understandable manner. And I think those amazing and incredibly generous professors make it that much harder to deal with the other kind. The professors who basically announce on the first day, this is a self taught class, and who require you to attend things that aren't even part of the class and or required by the school IN ORDER TO pass the class. The professors who preach about emailing for help and asking questions in class, but never email you back and when you ask questions in class they throw a fit about how "you should know how to do this" even though they never taught it to you in the first place.
I mean seriously, what is their deal? If you hate teaching so much, then don't do it. Don't torture the students who are there to learn about something that will help them with their future career. Or maybe, give a little bit. Don't be so darn stubborn and unwilling to teach. LEARN from the students.
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I'm sitting here right now with both of my roommates out for the night. Although I am alone, I can still hear the normal sounds of the boys in the room nextdoor playing halo, and the boys on the other side of me practicing for his acapello performance coming up, as he does every night. I can hear the rumbling of the washing machines, especially washer #18 which goes insane whenever it's down to the last 10 minutes. Lastly, I can hear all of the people waiting for the laundry to finish. So in a sense, I'm never really alone. That has been a huge change for me in college.
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Learning Experience
Tonight was a good example of experiences you only have in college.
Tonight the Red Sox won the World Series. My roommates and I heard screaming and chanting coming from outside as we tried to fall asleep; we all have 8am classes tomorrow morning. Yet here I am, still awake, writing in my blog.
My entire building that had spent the entire weekend arguing and wrapped up in excessive amounts of drama suddenly put all of it behind us as we went outside to join the screaming fans. I have never seen anything like it.
I grew up and spent the entire 18 years of my life in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I went to private high school with a graduating class of 56 students. Seeing everyone from Willow and Cedar outside tonight chanting and crowd surfing as the cops began to sworm was something I had never experienced before.
Every other World Series or Superbowl I spent at home, watching with my parents and my younger sister. It was so much fun to finally be out and celebrating with people my own age. At the same time though, it also made me realize how much I miss my family. I miss how my dad and I would guess outcomes of the game before the pre-game show even. I miss how my mom would use the games as an excuse to bake brownies, pastries, and other goodies. I miss how my sister used to sit next to me as we watched, pretending to know what was going on.
It's amazing how much you realize you have once it's gone. It's amazing how hard it hits you, too.
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Reading Is Easy!
I think I have settled in on a problem. Reading. Maybe it's less of a difference, but more of a fundamental difference? I think it's a problem. Other people would probably disagree.
Anyway, back to reading. Why don't people do it? I never really thought about it, but it seems like almost no one I talk to reads. I go to the library a lot, not just to steady, but to keep my rotation of books flowing. I try to cap off 2 a week at the least, depending on the length/subject matter/the week. As previously brought up, I suck at sleeping, so I tend to do a lot of reading late at night.
Whenever I come back from the library with this weeks crop of books, I always get weird looks and questions about what class it's for. Why is reading for pleasure such a foreign concept? I think it's pretty awesome. I learn a lot, it helps my writing immeasurably [I think it's probably the only reason I can write], it's just an enjoyable experience, and it makes me a much better dinner companion. But whenever the subject of why I'm reading a book instead of doing [x] comes up, I am always met with apathy.
Even for classes where you have to read, not everyone does. It is not like you are being asked to read Ulysses or something. Just read! It's good for you! What the hell people. Ugh.
Whatever, I'm not going to stop. Maybe it's the way I was raised? My dad always read, and always encouraged me to. That and crossword puzzles have taught me twenty times as many words as English classes ever had. In that respect, I'll add what I'm reading on the current day for whoever reads this blog (you poor, poor, soul). I plan on plowing through Stoppard's latest trilogy again, before some books I ordered through HELIN get here.
Maybe we should start a campus wide reading campaign. Like in 5th grade? Give out Trophies? I'm liking the sound of that.
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