On power, in all its forms
At around 4:30 today the power went out all over campus due to a huge thunderstorm -- high winds, heavy rain, thunder and lightning, the works. I took a nap through most of the time it was out (and missed dinner because of it -- oops!), and then, out of sheer boredom, I started reading Watchmen (finally!) by flashlight. I got to the second chapter before the lights came back on an hour or so ago (10:15 PM). And what do I do when the electricity came back? Why, jump right back online, of course! Jeez, I'm pathetic. :( Anyway, it was still a little creepy because the power has never been out for that long as long as I've been here, and it was getting really dark. But at the same time, it wasn't bad; I managed.
A few links I came across this week before I start working on more papers tomorrow:
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
This applies more to Ivy League schools like Yale more than liberal arts colleges like mine, but it still raises a few really interesting points.
The whole bit about "Ivy retardation" makes sense, because yes, after spending some time in a hard-to-get-into school it's easy to think that somehow implies people like Goatee Guy are not as "educated," and therefore "beneath" you, so it's hard to talk to them because that line of thinking implies they're not worth communicating with -- hell, I've caught myself thinking this on more than occasion, and I'm only halfway through college. I can't entirely sympathize with this notion because the writer of the article emphasizes wanting small talk, and I'm not a fan of that at all, but in terms of communicating more important matters, yeah, I can see how this is troublesome.
I can kind of see the point about how students in these colleges are homogeneous in terms of class, but at least where I go it might not be as bad -- most students have at least some of their tuition paid for through financial aid (including me), and not everyone here is at least upper middle class (I might count myself as UMC, but that'd really be pushing it). Plus, you have a lot of black, Hispanic, and international students who clearly don't come from advantaged backgrounds. But whatever diversity we have class-wise is rendered moot by the fact that my college is still extremely whitebread.
I totally agree about how colleges focus on developing analytic intelligence while completely ignoring, and in some cases stifling, other forms of intelligence (artistic, emotional, social, etc.). This is obvious: people who are supposedly "smart" leave dirty dishes from the dining halls in the stairwells and messes in the dorm kitchens and newspapers all over tables, and get so horribly drunk that sometimes they wind up in the hospital getting a stomach pump, and seem unable or uninterested to form or maintain long-term relationships, whether as friendships or something more (guilty as charged on that last bit). It's been getting harder and harder for me to write anything creative, prose or poetry, ever since I got here, and now I'm starting to see why. Besides, as much as I like an intellectual life (why else would I be writing this?) and enjoy analyzing things, I realized this semester that sometimes it gets to be too much. In no less than two of my classes we ended up rehashing the same themes and talking points in discussion, and a lot of us were scrambling to say anything resembling profundity just so we can get a good participation grade (I've stopped caring about participation grades in classes, to be honest). And then analytic thought isn't exactly useful -- or even beneficial -- in some important parts of life anyway. Sometimes I really wonder what I ought to be doing instead of squandering my parents' hard-earned money going here.
I also agree about how grades and rankings end up defining your identity when they really don't measure much and aren't really that important at all. Sometimes I suspect that the only reason I got into advanced classes in middle and high school, and now here, is that I knew how to get good grades on things, and not due to any extreme degree of intelligence and actually learning anything. I know it's not true, but sometimes I can't help but feel inadequate, you know?
......And word to everything else. A long but worthy read, one of the best articles I've read in a while now. (And it also makes me glad I go to a liberal arts school, kind of, just because the professors care way more about their students and what they're learning rather than those at Ivy Leagues.)
In Pursuit of Knowledge
My college newspaper seems to be cranking out a lot of good op-eds recently (or maybe I've finally started noticing). Anyway, this one speaks for itself.
Jeez, I'm ranting way too much about college these days, haven't I? How do you guys put up with me? XP I guess that's what happens when you start paying attention to things around you, and then a whole glut of other people come out and say what you've been thinking all along. Though I do have one more ranty thing to share:
Speech Code of the Month: Middlebury College
On one hand I rolled my eyes at this, but on the other hand I can't say I'm surprised. This is why the College Republicans brought in people like Bay Buchanan, Egil "Bud" Krogh, and Duncan Niederauer, the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange -- conservatives who aren't too provocative or controversial, or else they would have to pay through the nose for protection.
A few links I came across this week before I start working on more papers tomorrow:
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
This applies more to Ivy League schools like Yale more than liberal arts colleges like mine, but it still raises a few really interesting points.
The whole bit about "Ivy retardation" makes sense, because yes, after spending some time in a hard-to-get-into school it's easy to think that somehow implies people like Goatee Guy are not as "educated," and therefore "beneath" you, so it's hard to talk to them because that line of thinking implies they're not worth communicating with -- hell, I've caught myself thinking this on more than occasion, and I'm only halfway through college. I can't entirely sympathize with this notion because the writer of the article emphasizes wanting small talk, and I'm not a fan of that at all, but in terms of communicating more important matters, yeah, I can see how this is troublesome.
I can kind of see the point about how students in these colleges are homogeneous in terms of class, but at least where I go it might not be as bad -- most students have at least some of their tuition paid for through financial aid (including me), and not everyone here is at least upper middle class (I might count myself as UMC, but that'd really be pushing it). Plus, you have a lot of black, Hispanic, and international students who clearly don't come from advantaged backgrounds. But whatever diversity we have class-wise is rendered moot by the fact that my college is still extremely whitebread.
I totally agree about how colleges focus on developing analytic intelligence while completely ignoring, and in some cases stifling, other forms of intelligence (artistic, emotional, social, etc.). This is obvious: people who are supposedly "smart" leave dirty dishes from the dining halls in the stairwells and messes in the dorm kitchens and newspapers all over tables, and get so horribly drunk that sometimes they wind up in the hospital getting a stomach pump, and seem unable or uninterested to form or maintain long-term relationships, whether as friendships or something more (guilty as charged on that last bit). It's been getting harder and harder for me to write anything creative, prose or poetry, ever since I got here, and now I'm starting to see why. Besides, as much as I like an intellectual life (why else would I be writing this?) and enjoy analyzing things, I realized this semester that sometimes it gets to be too much. In no less than two of my classes we ended up rehashing the same themes and talking points in discussion, and a lot of us were scrambling to say anything resembling profundity just so we can get a good participation grade (I've stopped caring about participation grades in classes, to be honest). And then analytic thought isn't exactly useful -- or even beneficial -- in some important parts of life anyway. Sometimes I really wonder what I ought to be doing instead of squandering my parents' hard-earned money going here.
I also agree about how grades and rankings end up defining your identity when they really don't measure much and aren't really that important at all. Sometimes I suspect that the only reason I got into advanced classes in middle and high school, and now here, is that I knew how to get good grades on things, and not due to any extreme degree of intelligence and actually learning anything. I know it's not true, but sometimes I can't help but feel inadequate, you know?
......And word to everything else. A long but worthy read, one of the best articles I've read in a while now. (And it also makes me glad I go to a liberal arts school, kind of, just because the professors care way more about their students and what they're learning rather than those at Ivy Leagues.)
In Pursuit of Knowledge
My college newspaper seems to be cranking out a lot of good op-eds recently (or maybe I've finally started noticing). Anyway, this one speaks for itself.
Jeez, I'm ranting way too much about college these days, haven't I? How do you guys put up with me? XP I guess that's what happens when you start paying attention to things around you, and then a whole glut of other people come out and say what you've been thinking all along. Though I do have one more ranty thing to share:
Speech Code of the Month: Middlebury College
On one hand I rolled my eyes at this, but on the other hand I can't say I'm surprised. This is why the College Republicans brought in people like Bay Buchanan, Egil "Bud" Krogh, and Duncan Niederauer, the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange -- conservatives who aren't too provocative or controversial, or else they would have to pay through the nose for protection.