(no subject)
I know that I of all people shouldn't get frustrated with others when it comes to expecting too much. I really shouldn't. However, I find people funny in that they can't defend their ideas when challenged about them.
Carla went off on some e-mail that her history professor sent. The class has had to write up discussion questions each class period as homework; the instructor now wants them to specify the page and part of the chapter on which they base their questions. She had a fit. Apparently, as a computer science/engineering person, she doesn't feel the need to cite her sources like the rest of the academic world. Going on to say that she didn't want to do it because teachers should always give out all rules beforehand and that this new rule was hugely unjust. I mentioned that he probably had only added the rule because students were likely writing questions that had nothing to do with the readings or, possibly, the course. Citing specific textual backing keeps you honest. So she goes off on how "people should just get it and do things right."
*sigh*
I chose to shut up at that point. I could have sworn that school was about learning. Besides, it's a 100 level course. I bitch about my 100 level course but only in the context that I should have finished such things a couple years ago.
Yet it's still better than Jennifer bitching about how it shouldn't be cold. Mind you it's 55 outside, not too bad. Upon pointing out that, yes it should be cold, it being winter and all, she got petulant and whined some more. I rolled my eyes and said it was rather self-centered that she expect the weather to conform to her whims, droughts and this heat wave thing being rather bad things. She didn't like that and denied saying what she had said a few minutes previously and got defensive.
*deep sigh*
Does no one enjoy rhetoric anymore? Does no one understand argument for argument's sake? I hate it when people get defensive, not because you disagree with them, but because they can't back up what they're saying.
Then again I've been rather disappointed with the world lately, so that could be why I'm frustrated. I'm taking a class on the Enlightenment through to the Romantics and would like to believe that the Enlightenment did a lot of good things and that we live in an Enlightened society. However, so many little things make me question whether or not we've progressed at all. Thomas Jefferson once said that he cared not whether his neighbor believed in one god or in twenty for it neither picked his pocket nor broke his arm, in other words, it didn't hurt him. Novel concept isn't it? Things being considered wrong only if they do harm rather than "because I said so." Whatever.
On the way home from looking at the place Martin's moving into we have an RV plastered in bright colors and pictures flying a few flags. It broke my heart. It had a giant picture of two men kissing with a big red X through it. Amongst other things written on the vehicle against homosexuals the line that broke my heart was "Truth not Tolerance"
*sigh*
I love people, I do, even the ones that "don't get it," but sometimes it's hard to be accepting of people when so many others aren't.
Carla went off on some e-mail that her history professor sent. The class has had to write up discussion questions each class period as homework; the instructor now wants them to specify the page and part of the chapter on which they base their questions. She had a fit. Apparently, as a computer science/engineering person, she doesn't feel the need to cite her sources like the rest of the academic world. Going on to say that she didn't want to do it because teachers should always give out all rules beforehand and that this new rule was hugely unjust. I mentioned that he probably had only added the rule because students were likely writing questions that had nothing to do with the readings or, possibly, the course. Citing specific textual backing keeps you honest. So she goes off on how "people should just get it and do things right."
*sigh*
I chose to shut up at that point. I could have sworn that school was about learning. Besides, it's a 100 level course. I bitch about my 100 level course but only in the context that I should have finished such things a couple years ago.
Yet it's still better than Jennifer bitching about how it shouldn't be cold. Mind you it's 55 outside, not too bad. Upon pointing out that, yes it should be cold, it being winter and all, she got petulant and whined some more. I rolled my eyes and said it was rather self-centered that she expect the weather to conform to her whims, droughts and this heat wave thing being rather bad things. She didn't like that and denied saying what she had said a few minutes previously and got defensive.
*deep sigh*
Does no one enjoy rhetoric anymore? Does no one understand argument for argument's sake? I hate it when people get defensive, not because you disagree with them, but because they can't back up what they're saying.
Then again I've been rather disappointed with the world lately, so that could be why I'm frustrated. I'm taking a class on the Enlightenment through to the Romantics and would like to believe that the Enlightenment did a lot of good things and that we live in an Enlightened society. However, so many little things make me question whether or not we've progressed at all. Thomas Jefferson once said that he cared not whether his neighbor believed in one god or in twenty for it neither picked his pocket nor broke his arm, in other words, it didn't hurt him. Novel concept isn't it? Things being considered wrong only if they do harm rather than "because I said so." Whatever.
On the way home from looking at the place Martin's moving into we have an RV plastered in bright colors and pictures flying a few flags. It broke my heart. It had a giant picture of two men kissing with a big red X through it. Amongst other things written on the vehicle against homosexuals the line that broke my heart was "Truth not Tolerance"
*sigh*
I love people, I do, even the ones that "don't get it," but sometimes it's hard to be accepting of people when so many others aren't.