Friday, January 28, 2005
Bad Habits Die Hard
My first week of classes is officially over. Well, for this semester at least. I decided to do something that, I'm coming to realize, was a bit bold. I made a drastic switch. After spending last semester toiling through three upper level earth and atmospheric science classes and a computer science class, I decided to sway the other way. Last semester it was 4 sciences, one not; this semester it's 4 humanities, one not.
Little did I realize, despite how much I detested some things about the sciences, I got deeply accustomed to their culture, their way of doing things. Readings were usually few, problem sets were many and difficult. But the readings... they really didn't matter that much. I mean, if you got the concepts, you could get by. Sure I'd always do the readings, but I got used to doing them on my own schedule, and them not mattering too much.
Fast forward to now. Predictably I have a ton more reading to do with all these humanities classes. Duh, I saw that one coming. I guess what I didn't quite realize was how important they are. Or the fact that I actually need to do them, on time. On two occasions this first week, I was thrust into surprising and uncomfortable situations.
Take my 10-person anthropology class. We had three readings for this week, one of which I got around to doing before class. I was a bit caught off guard when the professor started asking us questions about them and went off into a 50 minute discussion about the readings. Luckily, he caught on to the fact that maybe we weren't quite aware of his teaching style and the way he wants us to do the readings. So it was a close call, but I got off the hook and survived.
You'd think maybe I learned my lesson right then and there? Nooooo.... See, I'm also taking this history class. Unlike anthropology, history is more of a lecture class with some 75 students. Earlier today we had our weekly discussion group, which was also quite big. I didn't get around to doing the readings, and I didn't think it was so bad. I'm used to professors just yacking at us for an hour and then letting us off the hook.
I think my heart skipped a beat when the Teaching Assistant said she's splitting us up into smaller discussion groups for the whole period save the last five minutes. I think my heart really stopped for a second when she slapped a transparency full of questions for us to discuss on the overhead projector. Oh. ma. gawd. I hate having to BS my way through so much.
So as the government-major-girl with straight-ironed hair foamed on the sides of her mouth while confidently spewing rhetoric and answers from her lips, I sat, and nodded, and racked my brain to come up with something semi-intelligent, somewhat on-topic to say. As a matter of fact, though, it wasn't just the girl next to me. My group was filled with seasoned history majors who knew the drill. They possessed some sort of insider knowledge that guided them to say things that sounded right and pleased the TA so much so that her eyes would roll in her sockets in enthusiasm and she would respond emphatically, pushing them to think more, further, deeper.
Well, I don't know what to say. I guess I have some getting used to to do. And as for those reading habits I developed in the sciences? I think they've suddenly contracted some fatal illness.
Little did I realize, despite how much I detested some things about the sciences, I got deeply accustomed to their culture, their way of doing things. Readings were usually few, problem sets were many and difficult. But the readings... they really didn't matter that much. I mean, if you got the concepts, you could get by. Sure I'd always do the readings, but I got used to doing them on my own schedule, and them not mattering too much.
Fast forward to now. Predictably I have a ton more reading to do with all these humanities classes. Duh, I saw that one coming. I guess what I didn't quite realize was how important they are. Or the fact that I actually need to do them, on time. On two occasions this first week, I was thrust into surprising and uncomfortable situations.
Take my 10-person anthropology class. We had three readings for this week, one of which I got around to doing before class. I was a bit caught off guard when the professor started asking us questions about them and went off into a 50 minute discussion about the readings. Luckily, he caught on to the fact that maybe we weren't quite aware of his teaching style and the way he wants us to do the readings. So it was a close call, but I got off the hook and survived.
You'd think maybe I learned my lesson right then and there? Nooooo.... See, I'm also taking this history class. Unlike anthropology, history is more of a lecture class with some 75 students. Earlier today we had our weekly discussion group, which was also quite big. I didn't get around to doing the readings, and I didn't think it was so bad. I'm used to professors just yacking at us for an hour and then letting us off the hook.
I think my heart skipped a beat when the Teaching Assistant said she's splitting us up into smaller discussion groups for the whole period save the last five minutes. I think my heart really stopped for a second when she slapped a transparency full of questions for us to discuss on the overhead projector. Oh. ma. gawd. I hate having to BS my way through so much.
So as the government-major-girl with straight-ironed hair foamed on the sides of her mouth while confidently spewing rhetoric and answers from her lips, I sat, and nodded, and racked my brain to come up with something semi-intelligent, somewhat on-topic to say. As a matter of fact, though, it wasn't just the girl next to me. My group was filled with seasoned history majors who knew the drill. They possessed some sort of insider knowledge that guided them to say things that sounded right and pleased the TA so much so that her eyes would roll in her sockets in enthusiasm and she would respond emphatically, pushing them to think more, further, deeper.
Well, I don't know what to say. I guess I have some getting used to to do. And as for those reading habits I developed in the sciences? I think they've suddenly contracted some fatal illness.
