Scholastic blues
I know I don't use this thing that much. Some part of me rebels against it. But sometimes it's difficult to deal with everything in your own head. I need to see it on paper. I need to tangle with it in ink.
I'm scheduled to take yet another graduate course in something I know little about, but the course looks interesting. I've had some success with this method, as when I took a course on the sublime and another one on diasporas in literature. My instructor for the course on the sublime thought for sure that seeing Immanuel Kant on the reading list would scare most of us off, but the course remained full throughout the quarter. This try-it-and-see method's not always the easiest way to go about it, though, since I have to quickly research the background that I lack.
At any rate, a friend suggested that I might want to try a - gasp! - undergraduate course for once. I haven't taken one in a couple years; I've almost forgotten what they were like. But whenever this friend gives me advice, I listen and give it deep consideration. So I found two courses that looked like they'd be fun, even if they are scheduled for two days a week instead of one. The problem is, undergrad instructors don't have to post their syllabi before the quarter begins. I have no idea what the reading will be or how the courses are going to be structured. It's also been years since I've taken a written final exam, you see.
I don't have much time to decide in. Do I stay with the tried and true - an instructor I've had before, a graduate course with the usual reading and final paper? Or do I try out an undergrad course with a new instructor, and perhaps more talking monkey work than I've had to do in like two years?
Hmmmm...
I'm scheduled to take yet another graduate course in something I know little about, but the course looks interesting. I've had some success with this method, as when I took a course on the sublime and another one on diasporas in literature. My instructor for the course on the sublime thought for sure that seeing Immanuel Kant on the reading list would scare most of us off, but the course remained full throughout the quarter. This try-it-and-see method's not always the easiest way to go about it, though, since I have to quickly research the background that I lack.
At any rate, a friend suggested that I might want to try a - gasp! - undergraduate course for once. I haven't taken one in a couple years; I've almost forgotten what they were like. But whenever this friend gives me advice, I listen and give it deep consideration. So I found two courses that looked like they'd be fun, even if they are scheduled for two days a week instead of one. The problem is, undergrad instructors don't have to post their syllabi before the quarter begins. I have no idea what the reading will be or how the courses are going to be structured. It's also been years since I've taken a written final exam, you see.
I don't have much time to decide in. Do I stay with the tried and true - an instructor I've had before, a graduate course with the usual reading and final paper? Or do I try out an undergrad course with a new instructor, and perhaps more talking monkey work than I've had to do in like two years?
Hmmmm...