Academia

It's a good thing my favorite class is my first class every day. It gives me incentive to not sleep through my early classes like I occasionally did at BYU. I don't think I've missed a class here yet. Well, except Institute, but that's not a real class, and I missed it for a worthy cause. Besides, the only reason anyone would even notice is because I'm not there playing the piano upside-down with my head under the keyboard. That's really fun, by the way. Someday I'll get a video. ;)

Philosophy's my last class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I always come out of that one feeling like I've just finished beating my head against a wall. It's not that I don't understand the material--it's just that I don't understand the professor. We've been going over deductive, inductive, and abductive arguments all month. I can explain what those are, upside-down, backwards, with my eyes closed, while playing the piano and juggling chainsaws with my feet. I can tell you the difference between a valid argument and a sound argument, no problem. I know what true and false mean. But the teacher says "Define true and false." Um... if something's true... then it's right. It's correct. It's accurate. It's provable and/or observable. But he says every one of those answers is wrong. Then when everyone in the class gets frustrated and gives up, he says "This table is here. That is a fact. I said it. There it is. It's true. There is a table here."

.......what?

We go over and over and over things, not because we don't understand them, but because he doesn't accept our answers. For example, he'll say "What is the first letter of the alphabet?" I'll say "A." He'll say "No. You're wrong. Don't be a monkey. The first letter of the alphabet is the first thing you would say if you were to recite the alphabet." Okay.... Whatever.

So next class, he says "What is the first letter of the alphabet?" I'll say "The first thing you'd say if you were to recite the alphabet." And he says "No. You're wrong. Don't be a monkey. The first letter of the alphabet is the last thing you would say if you were to recite the alphabet backwards."

Next class, same question again. I say "It's A, the first thing you say if you recite the alphabet forwards, the last if you say it backwards." And he says "No. You're wrong. Don't be a monkey. Can you prove that? No. You can't. Nothing can be proven, you monkey."

Next class, same question. I give up and try to let someone else answer. Everyone just stares at him. He says "Well, okay, first, what is the alphabet?" We try to explain what the alphabet is, and GUESS WHAT! This entire cycle starts over! Every time someone gives an answer, he says "No. You're wrong. Don't be a monkey."

And of course, since I can never get the right answers, he's marking me down for not doing the reading. I've done the reading. Several times. I've got it highlighted and underlined, and I've got notes crammed in the margins on almost every single page. I know it backwards and forwards and inside-out. I go to class, I do all the homework... I guess the only thing left to do to save my participation grade is to go see him during office hours. Except he says we're only allowed to do that if we have specific questions. I don't have specific questions. I feel relatively confident that I know the material. I just don't know how I would say it on a test in such a way that he wouldn't go "No, you worded it wrong, you monkey."

He keeps class interesting, unquestionably. But interesting torture is still painful.

So I was frustrated as I headed home from my last class today. Then I stopped by the post office to get my mail, and I had gotten back my second Latin assignment. And guess what. ...I got an A+!!!! That's the first time I've gotten an A+ on a Latin assignment since 101! YAY!!!

So I feel better now. Woot! :D