What I Learned In College/University
So, apropos of discussion on this xkcd post...
What I learned in College/at University (St. Bonaventure University: BA in English, minor in Theology) that I actually use(d) at work or in my personal life.
In actual classes
multiple literature classes I was required to take 12), mostly of Dead White Men (:
Absorbed hundred of thousands of words of well-written literature in English, which I believe burned good writing styles and grammar into my brain.
You can interpret all sorts of different things into any given fiction story.
A really good writer understands a hell of a lot about human nature.
You can write using simple words and sentences and still be compelling and descriptive (thanks, Ernest Hemingway!)
A writer is very much a product of their own upbringing and time.
The closest approximation to English poets of the Romantic era (admired social/political radicals and wild men) in our time and culture are musicians (Sting, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Emma's Revolution, Pete Seeger, Coolio, etc.)
Latin American Literature class:
A language's structure seriously influences its literary forms. Spanish has so many word endings with the same sounds that poetry can have intricate rhyming schemes. And literature loses a *lot* in translation, especially poetry.
Creative Writing:
"Literary" or metaphor-laden writing is appreciated more by academics than either humor or science fiction
Theology:
Spirituality crosses religious-belief barriers.
There are different stages of religious belief, and for preschoolers, simple good parenting/caregiving equals good religious instruction. (No need to read "Jesus stories" or whatever to them, though the act of reading to a child is strong spiritual education.) There's a "my people" stage at which a child (usually preadolescent) equates religion with "the way things are" and "it's right because it's what my people do". I quickly realized that some religions freeze at that stage and do not go on the the "questioning/doubting" and "re-forming one's own faith" stages.
My very favorite theological quote, from my favorite professor (the late great Fr. David Francis Sweeney, OFM, PhD): "There is the Church of Faith, and there is the Church of History." Fr. David's obvious lesson is that they are two very different things.
Feminism and Religion are not incompatible, and feminism offers lessons to religion. Homosexual couples can also teach straight people things about good relationships, and the implication: that people of faith can view homosexuality as a good thing!)(thank you, Dr. Kieran Scott).
The Catholic Church was not always run from the Vatican from an iron hand, and much of its teachings have evolved over the centuries, so why shouldn't they continue to evolve?
Computer Science:
The logic behind some essential lower-level programs (though my form of logic was incompatible with PASCAL's.
The hardware parts of a computer and how software operates in them.
History:
You can't possibly squeeze more than a rushed tour of the highlights of Chinese culture into half a standard-length course.
The wrong teacher can make even the European Renaissance boring.
How to argue about influences in history
Philosophy:
Most important thing--Fallacious arguments, such as ad hominem and reductio ad absurdum. Both of which are regularly used by talk and TV radio hosts.
Proper logic for arguments and the wonder of Venn diagrams
Boolean logic (vital for the first 10 or so years of database searching)
Different political systems, their advantages and disadvantages
Utopias and how hard they are to construct and maintain even on a small scale
Editing:
The point system of typefaces (not used now, but a useful introduction for my first career, in publishing).
Proofreading marks
Music:
Some things about breathing and intonation I didn't learn from my first high-school choir director.
That playing with feeling is more important than getting all the notes right (which I wasn't so good at)
Next time: what I learned outside of class (everything from Labatt's Beer is Good to How to Play Backgammon to my introduction to social injustices perpetrated by the US)
What I learned in College/at University (St. Bonaventure University: BA in English, minor in Theology) that I actually use(d) at work or in my personal life.
In actual classes
multiple literature classes I was required to take 12), mostly of Dead White Men (:
Absorbed hundred of thousands of words of well-written literature in English, which I believe burned good writing styles and grammar into my brain.
You can interpret all sorts of different things into any given fiction story.
A really good writer understands a hell of a lot about human nature.
You can write using simple words and sentences and still be compelling and descriptive (thanks, Ernest Hemingway!)
A writer is very much a product of their own upbringing and time.
The closest approximation to English poets of the Romantic era (admired social/political radicals and wild men) in our time and culture are musicians (Sting, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Emma's Revolution, Pete Seeger, Coolio, etc.)
Latin American Literature class:
A language's structure seriously influences its literary forms. Spanish has so many word endings with the same sounds that poetry can have intricate rhyming schemes. And literature loses a *lot* in translation, especially poetry.
Creative Writing:
"Literary" or metaphor-laden writing is appreciated more by academics than either humor or science fiction
Theology:
Spirituality crosses religious-belief barriers.
There are different stages of religious belief, and for preschoolers, simple good parenting/caregiving equals good religious instruction. (No need to read "Jesus stories" or whatever to them, though the act of reading to a child is strong spiritual education.) There's a "my people" stage at which a child (usually preadolescent) equates religion with "the way things are" and "it's right because it's what my people do". I quickly realized that some religions freeze at that stage and do not go on the the "questioning/doubting" and "re-forming one's own faith" stages.
My very favorite theological quote, from my favorite professor (the late great Fr. David Francis Sweeney, OFM, PhD): "There is the Church of Faith, and there is the Church of History." Fr. David's obvious lesson is that they are two very different things.
Feminism and Religion are not incompatible, and feminism offers lessons to religion. Homosexual couples can also teach straight people things about good relationships, and the implication: that people of faith can view homosexuality as a good thing!)(thank you, Dr. Kieran Scott).
The Catholic Church was not always run from the Vatican from an iron hand, and much of its teachings have evolved over the centuries, so why shouldn't they continue to evolve?
Computer Science:
The logic behind some essential lower-level programs (though my form of logic was incompatible with PASCAL's.
The hardware parts of a computer and how software operates in them.
History:
You can't possibly squeeze more than a rushed tour of the highlights of Chinese culture into half a standard-length course.
The wrong teacher can make even the European Renaissance boring.
How to argue about influences in history
Philosophy:
Most important thing--Fallacious arguments, such as ad hominem and reductio ad absurdum. Both of which are regularly used by talk and TV radio hosts.
Proper logic for arguments and the wonder of Venn diagrams
Boolean logic (vital for the first 10 or so years of database searching)
Different political systems, their advantages and disadvantages
Utopias and how hard they are to construct and maintain even on a small scale
Editing:
The point system of typefaces (not used now, but a useful introduction for my first career, in publishing).
Proofreading marks
Music:
Some things about breathing and intonation I didn't learn from my first high-school choir director.
That playing with feeling is more important than getting all the notes right (which I wasn't so good at)
Next time: what I learned outside of class (everything from Labatt's Beer is Good to How to Play Backgammon to my introduction to social injustices perpetrated by the US)