Liberal Arts

(just for the record - I find the above cartoon offensive)

I've been doing a lot of research for my capstone history class, and I recently came across this quote from a graduation speech given at Lehigh University in 1911:

"There is a comparative neglect of culture in our education. In our institutions of learning the chief stress is often laid upon technical training and little on the humanities and the culture courses. We turn out craftsmen rather than men...We have developed a lop-sided civilization, like Ephraim, 'we are a cake not turned,' burned black on the side of material and individual development, raw and sodden on the side of our social and moral development."

I think it is interesting that this was said 100 years ago, and the same debate is still going on. According to this article, "Humanities studies peaked in U.S. colleges in the 1960s and started dwindling in the 1970s...Today, more than 20 percent of each year's bachelor's degrees are granted in business; in humanities, it's about 8 percent." The idea that you should go to college to get a job is, I think, fundamentally flawed. There are plenty of other ways to get a job - going to college should be about wanting to be more educated - more well rounded, more informed. This post is getting too long, but I believe that the above quote says it best anyhow.

Books Books Books

Bookbinding is tons of fun. I've taken my fair share of what some may call "unnecessary" classes during my time at university. This may be one of them, but it is really nice to have an artistic outlet amongst the drudgery of other classes. Plus, I still think it is a valuable life skill. The picture above is of the three books I have made so far. The one on top is my favorite:

We had to make a closure for the book, and I used a metal clasp from one of my old purses and a leather strap. It worked out well. I'm glad that I had time in my schedule for this class.

Pro-crastination

Well, in relation to my last post - I told myself that I would write one blog every day of Thanksgiving Break. Now that it is one day after the end of break, I am sitting down to write some entries. sigh.

Break was great. A twelve hour car ride brought us to a warm-sunny-palm tree-pool side destination. I spent several hours just lying in the sun, enjoying the vitamin D that we miss out on in our normally cold climate.

I'm glad there are only about two and a half weeks left of school. I don't know how I'm going to do everything that I need to do in that amount of time, but its not the first time that I've felt like that, and in the past it has always somehow worked out. Regardless, it will be over in fifteen days, and that is a wonderful thing.

Confession

I've been in college for nearly five years, and I still have a hard time bringing myself to sit down and write a paper before crunch time. There is just something so motivating about knowing that I have to hand in a paper in 24 hours - and something so...distracting...in knowing that I still have three days to write. Why is this? I do all of my research, take notes, make outlines, but when it comes to actually writing the paper, I need to feel like there is nothing else my attention could or should be drawn to except the blank word document in front of me.

I'm not the only one. Paul Rudnick, a playwright and novelist, is quoted as saying, "Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write."

I don't know why this is.

To the Lake Falls Home

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wilderness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
-Gerard Manley Hopkins

I just registered for a five credit class called Wilderness Writing, and I couldn't be happier. I only have three classes left that I need to take to graduate. I met with my academic adviser earlier this week and she had all kinds of suggestions about classes I could take beyond the three I need. She encouraged me to pick up an extra internship or take another history class. And I said, "no. I don't want to." It was very liberating. I think that sometimes I forget that I'm an adult, this is my life, and even though there are oodles of opportunities to strengthen my resume, I don't have to take them all. I get to choose. And I'm choosing Wilderness Writing for several reasons.

1. We go camping and hiking every other weekend. We get to go cross country skiing and sleep in yurts and generally romp around outside. Last winter my outdoor activities consisted of the daily trudge to campus and back. I need some wilderness in my life.
2. Three credits of the class are for creative writing. I enjoy creative writing, and I haven't been doing much this semester.
3. It is my last semester here and I'd like to NOT be swamped with more work than required.
4. I'm taking it from the professor I went to England with, and he is a lovely human being.
5. I want to experience the area before I leave. I've only gone on a handful of hikes in the five years I have been here. I judge harshly because there is a general lack of water in this state, but I'd like to appreciate what there is out here.

Beyond all of those reasons, I just generally want to take the class. And I think it is good for me to learn to say no to professors. I'm glad they are here and they can help us so much, and I don't think that they really mind when we say no. I think they are trying to present us with what they believe are the best options, and then we get to choose.