tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39142186439516338782023-11-15T08:20:06.472-08:00el rugidoEl rugidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14188046312393013844noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3914218643951633878.post-32653160399247725082011-10-08T15:56:00.000-07:002011-10-08T15:56:29.041-07:00a word on education<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>1078</o:Words> <o:Characters>6150</o:Characters> <o:Company>Brigham Young University</o:Company> <o:Lines>51</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>14</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>7214</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I wrote the following for a Writing and Rhetoric class at the University. It reflects a few of my views concerning education. Enjoy! <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Honestly…Another GE? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> “Excuse me, but what exactly do we need to study for the test?” asked the girl on the fourth row. This question was followed by an inevitable, companion inquiry, this time offered by the boy sitting near the back of the room, “And how many questions are on the test? Are they multiple choice or what?” Professor Howard’s TA proceeded to give an answer as best she could after which another litany of questions dealing with grades and passing and failing followed. I was bewildered as to why these questions, all of which seemingly unrelated to the lecture, were suddenly being fired up at the professor. And then I came to. Of course! I thought to myself, I must be in a general education class. <br />
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At first, I must admit, I was just as interested as the other students to know the replies to those questions; after all, I wanted to do well on the test and pass the class just as much as the next guy (and with an A too if I could manage it). But soon my interest turned into alarm, and then into downright worry as it dawned on me that beneath the facade of all these interrogations, what students were really asking was, “How can I do the least amount of work and endure the least amount of pain to get the best grade I can and get out of this class as soon as possible? Oh, and would you mind throwing in some extra credit points with that too?” <br />
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This was not a singular experience. Most of us have witnessed it at one time or another here at Brigham Young University. When such questions are asked, I also observe their questioners who seem, at best, a little less than thrilled to be attending their general education courses. Nevertheless, only as we give our honest effort to work and learn in our general education courses, and indeed in all our courses, may we lay claim upon the greatest prize our university experience can offer—our moral integrity. <br />
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Well okay. Let’s be honest with ourselves. What good would it really do me to know how Ajax died, or to know what sodium makes when mixed with chlorine, or when or not it’s appropriate to use that pesky apostrophe? (I mean, was that Ajax guy even real?) Can’t I want to just get on with my degree? Good grief! This is college already, why do they force me to take these classes? Can’t I simply focus on specializing my skills so that I can have a better chance to get a job after graduation? <br />
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Of course we may; but blindly and half-heartedly blazing a trail through our general education courses puts us at risk of leaving completely undiscovered something so much more valuable than our prospective undergraduate degree. Taking general education courses enables us to discover and develop the best and brightest within us because through these courses we learn to “think clearly, communicate effectively . . . and establish clear standards of intellectual integrity” (BYU Mission Statement [Yeah, you know that document that we all probably ought to have read but have never bothered to]). <br />
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“Intellectual integrity,” an interesting phrase. But let’s stop for a moment to consider just what it means to possess intellectual integrity. To have integrity means to be honest, to possess strong moral principles. Just weeks ago Elder Neil L. Andersen addressed this campus and said, “Your personal honesty and integrity bind you to . . .your commitment, your agreement.” What is it that we are all committed to? To what are we all agreed? To ourselves. To our own intellectual and spiritual development. To have intellectual integrity then, looking at it in this light, means to be honest and committed to ourselves, to not cheat ourselves from the blessings that come from obtaining education. <br />
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Surely, we all hope to give ourselves the best shot at success in this life and in the eternities so let’s not waste another minute by simply skimming the material or committing it to memory long enough only to regurgitate it all over that next Algebra exam. When we subscribe to the binge and vomit method, not only do our exams turn out a yucky mess but also do our grades, and not to mention our potential. <br />
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Furthermore, if we can’t honestly take a general education course without having to cheat ourselves from the breadth and foundation of knowledge it offers, how can we be expected to land that dream job that we always wanted when out there, in the world, only those of greatest moral character succeed? By learning now to be honest with ourselves, we will do ourselves a great service where and when it really counts and when our food, family, and mortgage are all on the line. Let us not, then, echo the refrain offered by the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: ‘it might have been!” <br />
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To that student who mutters as he walks into the lecture hall, “I hate this class,” I would wish to respond, “Come on, you don’t really hate it. I saw you laugh at the professor’s corny joke, and your attention captivated when he played that kooky You-Tube video. I bet you even enjoyed that time when he blew up the counter top when he mixed all that whatchamacallit chemical with that other unidentified stuff. And there was that day when he danced like Napoleon Dynamite in front of thousands of students. Wasn’t that great?!” To use words such as “hate”, “boring”, or “stupid” to maintain an attitude towards your general education courses while still trying to earn As is just about as productive as trying to get a date with that really cute girl in PolySci 101 while telling her, “Oh, and by the way, my mom’s chaperoning.” In either case, you probably won’t get the desire results. <br />
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Your education is a work of art in the making and you are the maestro. Your masterpiece may be base or beautiful, dull around the edges or brilliantly sharp, bathed in dark monotone grays or splashed with striking Technicolor. Why then, ought we to settle for that picture on the front of the Frosted Flakes Cereal box when we could have a Bloch or a van Gogh or a Rembrandt? <br />
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Just think of it. In time, your magnum opus could be hanging in the hallowed halls of history with the likes of a Lincoln or a Franklin, an Einstein or an Aristotle—those pupils who understood that to be learned not only meant to make the grade, but to embrace the myriad opportunities surrounding them to expand their intellectual horizons. To them, studentship was not merely a part time job at McDonalds, it was their livelihood. <br />
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So, to those of you who wake up in the morning thinking enthusiastically to yourself, “Oh boy! Another day and another opportunity to broaden my horizons and drink deeply from the goblet of knowledge,” keep it up! Keep sitting on that front row! Keep participating in those dry American Heritage lectures! We applaud you. We salute you. You’re setting a great example for the rest of us. And as for the rest of us, the next time we’re tempted to groan when the professor says, “Today we’re discussing the theory of relativity . . . ” we would do better to remember that man who said, “Your education is worth what you are worth.” And in Heavenly Father’s eyes, that’s a pretty penny. We ought not to cheat ourselves out of one red cent of it. </span> <!--EndFragment-->El rugidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14188046312393013844noreply@blogger.com0