It’s About Time  October 22nd

It’s about time that I posted something here, seeing as a lot has been going on, and I have several topics I could talk about. I could go on and moan about my lab instructor, or I could fish for thoughtful opinions on any number of topics related to education, or I could tell you about my many shenanigans in which I partake during my times of not-work. Or perhaps I could write about all of these things – ideally, I could write about all of these things effectively and entertainingly.

My lab instructor is a scary man, and all those unfortunate enough to have to take physical chemistry laboratory are very, very sad to have to spend their weekends doing error propagation and discussing results and data and errors for 10+ pages. Despite my moaning and groaning and mediocrity in his class, said lab instructor likes me. He’s my faculty advisor, and I don’t think he knows that I would like to kick him in the head sometimes. If only I made the rules…

Speaking of, if I made the rules, or if I ran the General Physics I course, it would be quite different. The students would make better use of their class time and solve problems, instead of drawing a million free-body diagrams out of context of any such work that they will have to do on the exams. This might be easily rectified if they had a better textbook. Everyone minus Sam, the instructor, thinks the textbook sucks.

And if I made the rules, the 8th graders would actually try to speak Spanish in their Spanish class, instead of just color in rainbows that have each band labeled with the corresponding color in Spanish. I would also be less passive, as my current role is really to observe, but what I really want to do is encourage the kids to try to do their work – and actually have my opinion matter. Aside from my tutoring responsibilities, I think I’m supposed to interfere as little as possible.

On that note, it’s about time that students are held accountable for their irresponsibility and laziness. For the first time in three years, I have been held accountable for my mediocre writing. My senior year of high school, I slacked off immensely and got A’s in English anyway. The Writing Program here “taught” poor writing strategies. Finally, my art history professors are trying to teach us to write effectively. For me, it’s only been three years. For the seniors, I guess it’s been more than that. Maybe it’s even been forever.

And after all of this academic nonsense, my friends and I go ambulance-chasing and Dollar Tree shopping and TV watching. Dan came to visit, and as a wonderful host, I had him follow us to do laundry and help me do pchem homework. We watched A Very Potter Musical on YouTube, and that’s about it in his short-lived visit. And now I am eagerly awaiting the World Series, hoping that the Phillies can do it two years in a row! Dan Bear’s got his shirt on, and he would really like another.

So kids, it’s about time I interacted will all of you again. How has life been treating you? Do you have any scary, insane teachers? Would you like to turn the way your classes are run on its head? Has anyone ever actually tried to get you to write better, instead of accepting the mindless jabbering you created at the last minute?