Get a Voki now!
(actual question posed in class)
What I hate about midterms! They really know how to da-a-a-a-ance!
Wait, I think I got distracted by an eighties tune there. It happens from time to time, or, really, more like constantly. Blame the Sound Disease I have. Anyway, as I was going to begin, and should probably be getting on to by now, is, What I hate about midterms is this One Eternal Question: Do we have to know . . . ?
I think probably that all my students would hate my guts if I were a professor. I mean, of course I would win their hearts with my loveable charm and personable layman’s explanations of deeply complex concepts. But when it came test time, their burgeoning devotion would boil within them, forming a thin but crisp layer of hatred. Sort of like an emotional creme brulee. And the reason for this culinary delight of abhorrance is simply this: If asked the One Eternal Question? I would always say, Yes.
This seems particularly salient because of the subject matter for this particular course in which I’m having the midterm exam. It’s about American Politics. And, yes, it’s kind of a joke course, or should be probably, for anyone who is the age of majority. There’s a certain amount that people really should know about their government, don’t you think? Like, say, which Amendments protect their civil liberties (And, yes, for the record, I do realize I’m making myself sound like a pretentious ass.)? Luckily for me, I only have to know half the Amendments for my test tomorrow. Hopefully, I won’t be penalized if I accidentally spontaneously recall more.
I don’t know. It’s just that there seems to be this push for getting a degree over actually learning what you’re supposed to know. I mean, I think if I were a professor I would grimace with rage a little any time someone said to me, in effect, Look I know you think this is important, and apparently you’ve devoted a lot of time to this subject matter seeing as how you’re professoring it up there in the front of class and all, but is it really important? I mean, to people that matter? I mean, to me?
That’s the dumb thing about it. If we’re forced to have this well rounded education in which we have to take many classes outside our chosen field of study . . . shouldn’t they be more important than a pass or fail? And if they’re not, why are we taking them in the first place?
This isn’t a course, for instance, about subterranian insect species of the Amazon jungle. This isn’t a class on, say, the economic impact of glass blowing. This is American Politics. This crap should be intrinsic to us as well informed citizens, and not even all that well informed. We have to know what the ideas are to shape our own ideas. We should have our own ideas by this point, and we should be discerning and practical and, like, freaking, involved, to at least the extent of knowing what “liberalism” and “capitalism” are. We should be able to spell the word “tyranny” correctly. We should understand what political socialization is. And unless we do, we don’t deserve better than to be pushed about by people who know more than us, when we could know the same things and don’t.
I’m not sure why I’m ranting. Just can’t believe someone would ask, Which of our civil liberties do we have to know? For a test, presumably.
Tags: back to school, OMG, politics, ranting
Here’s the final exam, bring in a group of heavily armed, jack-booted soldiers, and abuse the class, physically and verbally, until someone can put together a cohesive argument on why it’s illegal
Yes. YES!!!