Stupid Classmates, More
This story is hardly a surprising one, but. . .
Yeah, so we were supposed to have read this book called Making a New Deal for my history class. I had to read it for a different class several semesters ago and enjoyed it then, so I was glad to get the chance to reread it.
Anyway, today was supposed to be a discussion day, and we'd be breaking up into groups of about 7 students to do so. Now mind you, we were supposed to have had the book finished for last week, but the professor had cancelled class for whatever reason. Oh, but no matter. I was the only person in my group that actually had the book with them and definitely the only person that had read any of it. It's not even that they hadn't finished it or had only skimmed the book-- no, two of them hadn't even *bought* the book and the others just decided not to. Great. @_@
SO, I had no choice but to tell them what it was about, after which one of the girls was like "Wow, you really DID read it!" Holy hell.
Well, the professor dropped by each group a few times, and we were silent every time just because I was the only one that knew anything, and it was impossible to have a discussion with myself. So she'd ask a few questions and-- weird-- I was the only one who could answer them.
Apparently this wasn't just a problem in my group, but in the other groups too. The professor tried leading a class discussion afterwards, but it was obvious that only a few of us had any idea what was going on, so she decided that the mandatory esay question on our final would be on this book. That's fine with me! Again, one of the girls actually said to me "it's a good thing you knew what you were talking about, cuz now I'll just memorize what you said instead of reading that whole thing."
Ugh, I really don't get it.
On a much better school-related note, I talked to one of my old professors for the last time in what I'm sure will be awhile today. I told her about the research I'm doing, and some other things I've been up to or plan to start doing and as usual, she was very supportive of everything. She actually said that if I ever plan on turning my research into an article or paper that she'd help me get it into the RI History Journal (I'm not sure if that's the title, but I guess there's some such publication)! I really appreciate her offer, but I'm not going to let myself feel pressured into writing anything any time soon. If it happens eventually, great, but I only started this research for my own personal enjoyment, cuz I'm crazy like that. :p
Hell weeks are coming up again soon. Tomorrow I have a philosophy paper due, which is mostly done but I'm not too happy about it. We were supposed to get at least one extra source from the library or the Internet to back up our main point, but such a hard time finding anything. First of all, our library only has a handful of books on this philosopher, and apparently the subject I chose to write on, hasn't been a popular one. I found *one* book and it only kinda-sorta has what I need. I have to throw a quote in from it anyway so I can put it in my bibliography. And I looked online, also without any luck.
I'm supposed to have an abstract for that class on Tuesday, on what my final paper (8-10 pages >_<) will be about, and a list of sources I plan on using. I have no idea what to do. Granted, we don't HAVE to do a final paper. . .we can take a regular in-class essay final instead. If I can find a decent topic though, I think I'd prefer to write. The philosopher we just covered seemed to have some weird theory on our inability to really perceive history because our ideas are always changing and thus will always change how we see the past. Something like that. I think I'm going to ask the professor about it tomorrow. I'm not sure that I could write 8 pages on that subject, but I don't know what else to do!
Random notes:
I decided to unblock Kevin in AIM for some strange reason today. Sure enough, he IMed me within an HOUR of my doing so. Ugh. Luckily I was away, so I didn't get the message until later. He wants me to IM or email him, but I don't think I will. The last time I talked to him, I don't know HOW long ago, he STILL hadn't moved on completely. I've long since forgiven him for being an ass, but I'm not sure I'm willing to actually communicate with him again. Maybe he'll go back on block list for now. Hm.
Rich is so going on a date on Saturday. Well, don't talk about me too much. My psychic powers will kick in and I will know. :p
Night!
Yeah, so we were supposed to have read this book called Making a New Deal for my history class. I had to read it for a different class several semesters ago and enjoyed it then, so I was glad to get the chance to reread it.
Anyway, today was supposed to be a discussion day, and we'd be breaking up into groups of about 7 students to do so. Now mind you, we were supposed to have had the book finished for last week, but the professor had cancelled class for whatever reason. Oh, but no matter. I was the only person in my group that actually had the book with them and definitely the only person that had read any of it. It's not even that they hadn't finished it or had only skimmed the book-- no, two of them hadn't even *bought* the book and the others just decided not to. Great. @_@
SO, I had no choice but to tell them what it was about, after which one of the girls was like "Wow, you really DID read it!" Holy hell.
Well, the professor dropped by each group a few times, and we were silent every time just because I was the only one that knew anything, and it was impossible to have a discussion with myself. So she'd ask a few questions and-- weird-- I was the only one who could answer them.
Apparently this wasn't just a problem in my group, but in the other groups too. The professor tried leading a class discussion afterwards, but it was obvious that only a few of us had any idea what was going on, so she decided that the mandatory esay question on our final would be on this book. That's fine with me! Again, one of the girls actually said to me "it's a good thing you knew what you were talking about, cuz now I'll just memorize what you said instead of reading that whole thing."
Ugh, I really don't get it.
On a much better school-related note, I talked to one of my old professors for the last time in what I'm sure will be awhile today. I told her about the research I'm doing, and some other things I've been up to or plan to start doing and as usual, she was very supportive of everything. She actually said that if I ever plan on turning my research into an article or paper that she'd help me get it into the RI History Journal (I'm not sure if that's the title, but I guess there's some such publication)! I really appreciate her offer, but I'm not going to let myself feel pressured into writing anything any time soon. If it happens eventually, great, but I only started this research for my own personal enjoyment, cuz I'm crazy like that. :p
Hell weeks are coming up again soon. Tomorrow I have a philosophy paper due, which is mostly done but I'm not too happy about it. We were supposed to get at least one extra source from the library or the Internet to back up our main point, but such a hard time finding anything. First of all, our library only has a handful of books on this philosopher, and apparently the subject I chose to write on, hasn't been a popular one. I found *one* book and it only kinda-sorta has what I need. I have to throw a quote in from it anyway so I can put it in my bibliography. And I looked online, also without any luck.
I'm supposed to have an abstract for that class on Tuesday, on what my final paper (8-10 pages >_<) will be about, and a list of sources I plan on using. I have no idea what to do. Granted, we don't HAVE to do a final paper. . .we can take a regular in-class essay final instead. If I can find a decent topic though, I think I'd prefer to write. The philosopher we just covered seemed to have some weird theory on our inability to really perceive history because our ideas are always changing and thus will always change how we see the past. Something like that. I think I'm going to ask the professor about it tomorrow. I'm not sure that I could write 8 pages on that subject, but I don't know what else to do!
Random notes:
I decided to unblock Kevin in AIM for some strange reason today. Sure enough, he IMed me within an HOUR of my doing so. Ugh. Luckily I was away, so I didn't get the message until later. He wants me to IM or email him, but I don't think I will. The last time I talked to him, I don't know HOW long ago, he STILL hadn't moved on completely. I've long since forgiven him for being an ass, but I'm not sure I'm willing to actually communicate with him again. Maybe he'll go back on block list for now. Hm.
Rich is so going on a date on Saturday. Well, don't talk about me too much. My psychic powers will kick in and I will know. :p
Night!
posted by Erica at 10:53 PM
4 Comments:
Hee!
Yeah, but what you failed to mention is that you and her are going out for dinner before you meet up with the 3rd person. SOUNDS LIKE A DATE TO ME!
haha, you know I'm just being mean. :p
And yeah, I forgot it was tonight, I thought you were meeting up with Mike tonight instead.
Regarding your uni story:
It sounds like you have a trait which others don't share - perhaps love of learning and reading, love of exploring new ideas.
It's a skill you have which others don't. Use this to your benefit - ie consider careers which need this talent, write it on your resume, appreciate your gift, etc, etc.
:-)
Guess what? When I was in that class we had to read making a New Deal and discuss it as well. Now that semester my 4 history classes had given me no less than 40 books to read (I'm serious, Roman History had 10 books alone!) Anyway, I only had time to read half of Making a New Deal because of all the other books I had to read, and I just skimmed the rest of it. When I got to school nobody had read a single page of it. So with my crappy knowledge of only half the book, I knew more than anybody else in the group lol.
So, its not just your class. In fact in Reumann's class I was usually the only person who had an answer for everything. Everybody else would just sit there and stare when she asked questions so I always felt bad and just said the damn answer.:p
David-
The way I look at it, if I didn't really like history, why would I be a history major? Unfortunately not a lot of kids at my school seem to share that opinion! And even the kids in my class who aren't history majors but are just taking the class as a gen ed requirement, I still wonder why they would sign up for a class that doesn't really interest them.
And yes, I've been advised by various professors, etc. to note my self-directed research and interests on my resume. Guess it can't hurt!
Travis-
I'm completely not surprised that your class was the same way. Luckily, we have a number of students that volunteer during regular classes, but whenever she tries to talk about things we've read, the room goes *dead* silent, heh.
And I know what you mean about having ridiculous amounts of reading. During the semester we had Klein, I was also taking Labor History (tons of reading, as you know) and several other classes with tons of reading. I'd usually just pick one thing to read in depth and then skim the others. Remember that book on imperialism? Yeah, I only got about halfway through that one, haha.
40 books is insane! I think the most I've had in one semester was 15, and that was QUITE enough. O_o
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