As a person who went to a quite expensive liberal arts college myself "Saint John's in Santa Fe", I can say with experience that it was one of the most awful and wonderful experiences of my life. The worst of it was the "don rag" where adults far more studied, more ingrained in the culture, and far more educated than myself "assessed" my…
As a person who went to a quite expensive liberal arts college myself "Saint John's in Santa Fe", I can say with experience that it was one of the most awful and wonderful experiences of my life. The worst of it was the "don rag" where adults far more studied, more ingrained in the culture, and far more educated than myself "assessed" my skills and weaknesses as a student. I got quite depressed hearing my faults of being a "contrarian". That one in particular disturbed me because I was unaware of just how argumentative I was capable of being. Took many months to figure out how to undo that quirk of mine (not that I don't argue endlessly still).
However, there was a singular moment that entirely changed my view of the educational program. I was in a science class at the end of the school year and it was supposed to just be a "talk about what we've been through". At that time, I learned how to have an honest dialogue as equals and I was incredibly excited to fill that hour and a half of class with productive conversation. In fact, I was so lost in the ideas I had learned, I had forgotten about how little everyone else had anything left to say. I certainly don't mind filling the hour and a half up if I need to do it alone. I am a rather quiet intellectual with little interest in socializing. Other people had many other things they were thinking about during the year I am sure. But what killed any interest in going back to that school was a single man in the room.
He was sitting on the opposite side of the classroom of me. He just wanted to leave class as quickly as possible. I didn't (my Mother had to pay for the entire school year herself!). I had no intentions of wasting the moment. But what silenced me without any extra effort was the look in his eyes. He HATED me for being an intellectual enjoying learning. And I don't just mean "fuck, can he shut up already!". I mean unadulterated malice that would make me not want to show up to class in the future. The look a criminal gives even if he was never going to act on it...
That is the educational world we live in today. It's not the fault of the tutors at that college (though I am sure some aren't great as with any place). It was the students. That's what killed it for me. It's a person telling me to get the hell out of there because I was looking to learn.
Ironically, in that same class, a black kid from Zimbabwe with a struggling understanding of the English language, and a heart of gold, came up to me after class and said, "hey, you should keep doing what you are doing. I have never seen a classroom be so animated about a class discussion before." The horrible irony being that a kid who probably needed a language aide to even understand the English just to get by was more interested in the art of education, than the 10 other kids who just wanted to feel good about being smarter than everyone else. I even said in the lunchroom I was going to give a scientist crap for being a reductionist fixated on how science is the power of control over nature. A philosophical principle that started in around the late 1700's because science was struggling to produce an effective theory on anything. So instead of being better, they became quicker and we live with that paradigm of dangerous science today because of it. His name was Claude Bernard.
The essay or thesis or whatever you'd like to call his control scheme of nature, was called "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", Part Two: Experimentation With Living Beings. It was written in 1865 and although his theory was highly productive, the further I read into the paper, the more and more I saw how in order to prove himself correct, he has to negate interrelational dynamics of living things. This meaning that if someone has high blood pressure, we give them blood thinners. And if further analysis says, "Oh hey, he needs more X, Y, and Z because his liver isn't being nourished properly, "Give him the blood thinners. That's your JOB as doctors." That is why today, instead of having "pro health" discussions, we have discussions of how to medicate people's lack of general health and well-being. Which isn't the fault of Doctors honestly. It's the fault of society saying the role of a Doctor is to be both a medically trained genius, a fully licensed nutritionist, a psychologist, a good friend and so on and so forth. Not even doctors get paid enough to do all of that... That and it goes against laws preventing doctors from deciding the lifestyles and behaviors of patients. Doctors are there to medicate, prevent and cure disease, not dictate our lives even if and when they know how best to do it.
If faculty are going to encourage group discussions with students, then they also need to monitor and create an environment that is conducive to the sharing of ideas, and to being passionate about learning. This means shutting down anti-intellectual behavior like the bullying (yes) that you experienced, even if it was done entirely with his eyes.
Halfway through the Nature's Prose term--five weeks into a ten week term--I was frustrated with the lack of engagement among the students. They had signed up knowingly and enthusiastically (I had had to turn several students away) for a program that required, among other things, spending a lot of time outside, alone. But most of the students weren't doing it. Why would they sign up for such a program, take a spot that other students wanted, and then not do the most obvious and basic part of the expectations of the program?
This was at a time when the "retention rate" at Evergreen was becoming a problem. Many students came as first-year students, but never came back for their sophomore year. So the administration was advising the faculty to do everything we could to "retain students."
It was in this environment that I walked into class and gave them an impromptu monologue on why they should definitely drop out of college, figure out what they wanted to do in their lives, and then--if it was part of the plan--come back to school. Why waste their, or more often their parents', money on curriculum to attend school if they are just spinning their wheels, not learning, playing some social game the specifics of which will fade quickly from memory?
I had their rapt attention with this unusual speech. I wasn't angry with them, and they knew that (anger would have come across differently). I was legitimately confused, and a little hurt, and truly did think that, for some of them, leaving, figuring themselves out, and coming back months or years later, would have been the right move.
The following Fall term, the administration had its knickers in a twist about all of the previous year's first year students who had failed to return. But every single one of my Nature's Prose students came back. (And I had many of the most remarkable of them in later programs, too.)
I think part of this “lack of engagement and participation” problem is the idea that colleges have lost their way, which has simultaneously caused the students to lose sight of the big picture. I think students feel obligated to go rather than recognizing it as an opportunity for growth, which in fairness to the students it is often not.
The university I attend, like many others, is also experiencing retention problems. And it makes me laugh to see them build new and nice buildings in the hopes that they fix the problem. They’re missing the point. They need to focus more on creating courses like yours shown here. Students, whether they’ll admit to it or not, want to be engaged. And I think offering that to them would increase retention more than a new entrance to our rec center.
Hmm, sad. Although I am excited about the potential I see within the online realm of education. The classes I’ve had over zoom have functioned well and allowed for decent conversation. I think it’d be cool if an institution were created, or perhaps it already exists, that had online class but then met for monthly, weekly, etc., field trips. Sounds like that would be a good fit for your brother!
My Brother became a TA for a university. He just had his budget because TAing "isn't in". He only got in because his professor recognized his intelligence and sincere interest in learning. And unlike the rest of the TA's, he was genuinely trying to connect and relate with the kids there. But since his budget and hours got sliced, he's having to quit entirely and now kids will be left with TA's half-heartedly showing up because it makes their schooling cheaper. He has resigned himself to just having to teach independently through animation and online "for fun" education curriculums so kids can still learn without it being an attack on their humanity whether through costs, budgets cuts, or simply not having respect for the kids who go there and feel unseen by the system. I feel the worst for kids with bad family history that are expected to perform just as well solely because they are smart.
I decided to fully give up on the education program of today. I had no actual problems with a single one of my tutors. I might have disliked one a bit, but not in any serious way. It was hearing the way students bitched about being educated that confused me. They acted as though all of these people with PhD's were their parents or something just lashing out rather than teaching...
I am glad that you managed to save them from the "scheme" of the modern system. There was only one tutor I had of my 6 that could have kept me loyal to that program to the end of days. His name was Michael Wolfe. A hard man to reach, but an exceptional educator to the likes I have never seen before and don't expect to.
I know I made the right choice leaving the program even if things got better there a little bit. I am one of the least respectful people by temperament, but even I could see that my tutors were being my better half even when I disliked the pain of being corrected so tightly.
As a person who went to a quite expensive liberal arts college myself "Saint John's in Santa Fe", I can say with experience that it was one of the most awful and wonderful experiences of my life. The worst of it was the "don rag" where adults far more studied, more ingrained in the culture, and far more educated than myself "assessed" my skills and weaknesses as a student. I got quite depressed hearing my faults of being a "contrarian". That one in particular disturbed me because I was unaware of just how argumentative I was capable of being. Took many months to figure out how to undo that quirk of mine (not that I don't argue endlessly still).
However, there was a singular moment that entirely changed my view of the educational program. I was in a science class at the end of the school year and it was supposed to just be a "talk about what we've been through". At that time, I learned how to have an honest dialogue as equals and I was incredibly excited to fill that hour and a half of class with productive conversation. In fact, I was so lost in the ideas I had learned, I had forgotten about how little everyone else had anything left to say. I certainly don't mind filling the hour and a half up if I need to do it alone. I am a rather quiet intellectual with little interest in socializing. Other people had many other things they were thinking about during the year I am sure. But what killed any interest in going back to that school was a single man in the room.
He was sitting on the opposite side of the classroom of me. He just wanted to leave class as quickly as possible. I didn't (my Mother had to pay for the entire school year herself!). I had no intentions of wasting the moment. But what silenced me without any extra effort was the look in his eyes. He HATED me for being an intellectual enjoying learning. And I don't just mean "fuck, can he shut up already!". I mean unadulterated malice that would make me not want to show up to class in the future. The look a criminal gives even if he was never going to act on it...
That is the educational world we live in today. It's not the fault of the tutors at that college (though I am sure some aren't great as with any place). It was the students. That's what killed it for me. It's a person telling me to get the hell out of there because I was looking to learn.
Ironically, in that same class, a black kid from Zimbabwe with a struggling understanding of the English language, and a heart of gold, came up to me after class and said, "hey, you should keep doing what you are doing. I have never seen a classroom be so animated about a class discussion before." The horrible irony being that a kid who probably needed a language aide to even understand the English just to get by was more interested in the art of education, than the 10 other kids who just wanted to feel good about being smarter than everyone else. I even said in the lunchroom I was going to give a scientist crap for being a reductionist fixated on how science is the power of control over nature. A philosophical principle that started in around the late 1700's because science was struggling to produce an effective theory on anything. So instead of being better, they became quicker and we live with that paradigm of dangerous science today because of it. His name was Claude Bernard.
The essay or thesis or whatever you'd like to call his control scheme of nature, was called "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", Part Two: Experimentation With Living Beings. It was written in 1865 and although his theory was highly productive, the further I read into the paper, the more and more I saw how in order to prove himself correct, he has to negate interrelational dynamics of living things. This meaning that if someone has high blood pressure, we give them blood thinners. And if further analysis says, "Oh hey, he needs more X, Y, and Z because his liver isn't being nourished properly, "Give him the blood thinners. That's your JOB as doctors." That is why today, instead of having "pro health" discussions, we have discussions of how to medicate people's lack of general health and well-being. Which isn't the fault of Doctors honestly. It's the fault of society saying the role of a Doctor is to be both a medically trained genius, a fully licensed nutritionist, a psychologist, a good friend and so on and so forth. Not even doctors get paid enough to do all of that... That and it goes against laws preventing doctors from deciding the lifestyles and behaviors of patients. Doctors are there to medicate, prevent and cure disease, not dictate our lives even if and when they know how best to do it.
Thank you for sharing all of this. Thank you.
If faculty are going to encourage group discussions with students, then they also need to monitor and create an environment that is conducive to the sharing of ideas, and to being passionate about learning. This means shutting down anti-intellectual behavior like the bullying (yes) that you experienced, even if it was done entirely with his eyes.
Halfway through the Nature's Prose term--five weeks into a ten week term--I was frustrated with the lack of engagement among the students. They had signed up knowingly and enthusiastically (I had had to turn several students away) for a program that required, among other things, spending a lot of time outside, alone. But most of the students weren't doing it. Why would they sign up for such a program, take a spot that other students wanted, and then not do the most obvious and basic part of the expectations of the program?
This was at a time when the "retention rate" at Evergreen was becoming a problem. Many students came as first-year students, but never came back for their sophomore year. So the administration was advising the faculty to do everything we could to "retain students."
It was in this environment that I walked into class and gave them an impromptu monologue on why they should definitely drop out of college, figure out what they wanted to do in their lives, and then--if it was part of the plan--come back to school. Why waste their, or more often their parents', money on curriculum to attend school if they are just spinning their wheels, not learning, playing some social game the specifics of which will fade quickly from memory?
I had their rapt attention with this unusual speech. I wasn't angry with them, and they knew that (anger would have come across differently). I was legitimately confused, and a little hurt, and truly did think that, for some of them, leaving, figuring themselves out, and coming back months or years later, would have been the right move.
The following Fall term, the administration had its knickers in a twist about all of the previous year's first year students who had failed to return. But every single one of my Nature's Prose students came back. (And I had many of the most remarkable of them in later programs, too.)
I think part of this “lack of engagement and participation” problem is the idea that colleges have lost their way, which has simultaneously caused the students to lose sight of the big picture. I think students feel obligated to go rather than recognizing it as an opportunity for growth, which in fairness to the students it is often not.
The university I attend, like many others, is also experiencing retention problems. And it makes me laugh to see them build new and nice buildings in the hopes that they fix the problem. They’re missing the point. They need to focus more on creating courses like yours shown here. Students, whether they’ll admit to it or not, want to be engaged. And I think offering that to them would increase retention more than a new entrance to our rec center.
Hmm, sad. Although I am excited about the potential I see within the online realm of education. The classes I’ve had over zoom have functioned well and allowed for decent conversation. I think it’d be cool if an institution were created, or perhaps it already exists, that had online class but then met for monthly, weekly, etc., field trips. Sounds like that would be a good fit for your brother!
My Brother became a TA for a university. He just had his budget because TAing "isn't in". He only got in because his professor recognized his intelligence and sincere interest in learning. And unlike the rest of the TA's, he was genuinely trying to connect and relate with the kids there. But since his budget and hours got sliced, he's having to quit entirely and now kids will be left with TA's half-heartedly showing up because it makes their schooling cheaper. He has resigned himself to just having to teach independently through animation and online "for fun" education curriculums so kids can still learn without it being an attack on their humanity whether through costs, budgets cuts, or simply not having respect for the kids who go there and feel unseen by the system. I feel the worst for kids with bad family history that are expected to perform just as well solely because they are smart.
I decided to fully give up on the education program of today. I had no actual problems with a single one of my tutors. I might have disliked one a bit, but not in any serious way. It was hearing the way students bitched about being educated that confused me. They acted as though all of these people with PhD's were their parents or something just lashing out rather than teaching...
I am glad that you managed to save them from the "scheme" of the modern system. There was only one tutor I had of my 6 that could have kept me loyal to that program to the end of days. His name was Michael Wolfe. A hard man to reach, but an exceptional educator to the likes I have never seen before and don't expect to.
I know I made the right choice leaving the program even if things got better there a little bit. I am one of the least respectful people by temperament, but even I could see that my tutors were being my better half even when I disliked the pain of being corrected so tightly.