I’m an Adult on the Internet

Posted: October 19, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: class | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The internet is preparing me for adult life. No, really. (Image courtesy of Randall Munroe. Licensed under CC 2.5)

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In my Sociology class yesterday (a panel presentation on screen media), the professor–after making the case that screen media shortens our attention spans, removes the market for great literature, and generally degrades society–asked us a pointed question:

“What that you do on the internet prepares you for being an adult?”

I was the first to answer, because I do not have a healthy sense of preservation and so enjoy challenging tenured faculty members with whom I’m taking two classes. (This is what we call a poor life choice.)

But really? The internet–Fleshbot and 4chan aside–prepares me a lot more for adult life than school has. On the internet, I write for several sites. One pays me in crazy interview opportunities for my resume. Another pays me with plain-Jane taxable income. A third goes with the income and the idea that trees will die for students to read what I think about colleges. All of these opportunities started through the internet and most of them stay there; I’ve only met two of my “coworkers” in person. Read the rest of this entry »

Teacher Don’t Teach, I’m In Trouble Deep

Posted: October 8, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: class | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

 

Are these notes even helping? Image courtesy of Lower Columbia College. Licensed under CC 2.0.

 

Today in Organic Chemistry, somewhere between writing out the mechanism for acid catalyzed reactions with carbocation intermediates and the mechanism for reactions with halonium intermediates, I realized I had no idea what I was writing down. And this got me thinking.

Why do I have what at this point basically amounts to $100,000 in student loans so that I can sit in a classroom and have some guy write some stuff on the board, not explain it, and expect me to read and learn it out of a book? Why don’t I just buy the $200 book, read it, and learn it myself? Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve had my fair share of “teach yourself” style classes before, but never to this extreme. Never to the point that I am actually clueless as to what’s going on for the entire 50 minute duration of the period. Never have I felt like I’m writing in some kind of hieroglyphic and just completely lacking any kind of Rosetta Stone to translate it all. The acidic hydrogen does what to the pi bond? Or does the pi bond do something to that boron molecule? The process of hydrobor-what?

But maybe I’m the one with the wrong idea. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like to put in my leg work beforehand, but that’s because I’d rather just hear someone else tell me what I need to know and fill in the couple of gaps myself, not try to construct the whole idea myself and have someone tell me I’m right. I wonder if this has to do with sheer laziness or just the fear of building the entire idea wrong? And if I do put in all that work and get the wrong idea, doesn’t that make it worse than not having any idea at all? Because I’m fairly certain that the grade I got back on this last Organic test is telling me LOUD and CLEAR that something about the way this guy is teaching just isn’t doing it for me. Let’s just say that if my grade was my age, I’d be waiting in line at the DMV, and this would be the most exciting day of my young life. Freedom! Too bad I’ll be stuck in my apartment teaching myself Organic Chemistry for the next two semesters instead of out enjoying that freedom.