I absolutely hate the College Survival class I'm taking. It's something the school pushes you to take because it's supposed to help you build skills to be a better student. I thought that sounded like a good thing and the class was only a month long, so I signed up. If I had known what it would be like, I never would have registered to take it.
First of all, the teacher is ridiculous. She forgets really important things, lost my homework once, and grades in a way that I don't understand. (Maybe I should have asked for the pass/no pass option instead of a letter grade?) She requires us to email most of our weekly assignments to her. That's how she lost my homework. I have to do the work over the weekend because I have so much other work to do during the week. I emailed the assignment on Sunday even though it wasn't due until Thursday morning. I got an email from her a week later when I sent the next assignment telling me that it wasn't too late to submit the homework from the week before. I emailed back reminding her that I had sent that assignment and after a few emails, she admitted she had lost it and apologized. But when I went to class last Friday, she told me I was in danger of failing the class and showed me my grades. She had given me a 0 on the assignment she lost and never corrected it despite telling me she would! Also, she canceled class one Friday and then gave everyone a 0 for attendance for that day. What the hell is up with that? And why are we being graded for attendance anyway? She is the only teacher I know of that actually grades so that you are punished if you miss a class. There are so few points anyway that missing one day will lower your grade an entire letter! It's unfair! I was pissed, but the silver lining was the class would be over on the 22nd. Well, last Friday she informs the class that we have 2 assignments that are due after class ends. What the fuck? One assignment is a "graduation plan" and not only do you have to search through the college catalog and plan every class for the next 2 years, you also have to make an appointment and have an adviser sign off on it. So I have to find time in the next 2 weeks (with finals coming up) to meet with an adviser. The second assignment is some paper she wants us to write, but she hasn't given us any info about it yet. The whole situation makes me want to scream.
And what have I learned from this class? Nothing I couldn't find on the school's website. I just don't see the point.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Essay for Writing Class
Thought maybe I'd post the essay I wrote and just see what people think. Maybe you don't agree with the point, but that's not what concerns me. I would appreciate feedback on how well the paragraphs flow together and if the essay is clearly understandable. Maybe what part you think needs work?
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Your Parents – The Shadow Makers
Half of everything your parents told you is a lie. Did those lies hurt you? Did you know they were lies? Parents are, to their children, the shadow makers Plato describes in The Allegory of the Cave. The shadow makers work behind the scenes, carrying objects back and forth in front of a fire. The shadows thrown on the wall of the cave as a result is the only reality the prisoners know.
As a very young child you were a prisoner, held captive by the values your family chained you down with. Your parents decided how you should behave, what you should know, and what you should believe. Your only view of life was what your parents chose to tell you. This idea is suggested by Plato. “The truth would be literally nothing but shadows of the images (Plato 450)”. It was the same for you. Unable to see anything else, you took your parents stories for truth. You were happy in your cave, trusting the reality your parents fed you.
One of the big lies parents tell their children is the myth of Santa Claus. You are regaled with stories from infancy of a jolly fat man in a red suit who lives at the North Pole. All year long, Santa and his team of vertically-challenged North Pole citizens, whom are referred to as “Elves”, prepare for Christmas Eve by making toys. Ponderously, these same toys seem to be available at every toy store. This man, this Santa Claus, we learn is magical. He knows if we’ve been bad or good. Good little children get toys and bad little children get lumps of coal. So you must be sure to be on your best behavior - at least from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve when your parents are reminding you every five seconds that Santa is watching you. He even knows if we’re sleeping or not. (How does that little bit of the story not frighten more kids into hating Christmas?) On Christmas Eve, the man in the red suit loads all the toys into a big sled pulled by nine reindeer, one of whom as a big glowing red nose that acts as a fog lamp, and flies off to deliver joy and happiness to all the children of the world. Forget for a moment that we’re supposed to believe somehow reindeer can fly, we’re supposed to accept that Santa can magically squeeze himself and a giant bag of toys down thousands of chimneys without getting stuck? At least this myth has some understandable value. It teaches you about having faith in something, or at the very least it gives your parents a rest from all the fighting for a few weeks while you’re trying your best to make up for all the bad things you did that year in the hopes of getting a new bike.
The story of the Easter Bunny makes no sense at all. First of all, Easter is a Christian holiday celebrating the day Jesus was resurrected after his crucifixion. Did someone decide all the talk of death was too scary for the little kiddies and try to come up with something less frightening? Yeah, a six foot rabbit is a lot less frightening than dying and coming back to life! What does Mr. Bunny do on Easter? He brings you a basket filled with candy and leaves brightly colored eggs hidden in your yard. There is no obvious connection between the Christian story and the Easter Bunny story. What do dyed eggs have to do with Jesus? (Except for the fact that Jesus died and the eggs are dyed.)
If you think the Easter Bunny myth is conflicting and Santa is a little scary, consider the Tooth Fairy for a moment. Picture this, you’re about five years old and you have a loose tooth. You show it to your mom and what does she tell you? Put it under your pillow and the tooth fairy will come when you’re asleep and give you money for it. We’re supposed to believe that somewhere out there is a little winged fairy so obsessed with teeth that she’s compelled to slip into children’s bedrooms while they’re asleep and trade cash for their little incisors and bicuspids. What does she do with all those teeth? We’re never given a satisfactory answer to that question. Maybe where she comes from teeth are currency. Maybe she builds her house out of teeth. Maybe she doesn’t take the teeth at all, but magically turns them into quarters. No wonder this is one of the shortest believed lies parents tell their kids.
As you get older, the truth comes out. You start asking too many questions and your parents decide it’s time to tell you the truth or they just get tired of keeping the myth alive or some mean kid at school tells you the truth because he thinks you’re stupid for still believing at twelve years old. However you find out, the result is the same. First there is denial. You want to keep on believing. Perhaps, you aren’t sure which version of reality the lie is. The reaction to this kind of sudden appearance of truth is described by Plato. “Forced into the presence of the sun…his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities (Plato 451)”. The sudden shock of light makes reality confusing and blurred. It’s painful and you want to turn away.
Then the denial wears away. Oh the horror! Your little world comes crashing down around your sobbing little head. How could mommy and daddy have lied to you? You start wondering what else they lied to you about. After all, if they lied to you about such huge pieces of your childhood, they could be lying to you about other things. Did your mom really like that poem you wrote? Did your dad really love that tie you bought him for Father’s Day? Do they really think you can do anything? Do they believe you’re smart? Do they see you as pretty or handsome? Possibly you start to question if you can trust your parents at all. Have they ever told you the complete truth about anything?
Is there any harm done when a parent lies to their child? Last year, a psychological study was conducted which showed that when parents lied to their children, it did cause harm. In this study, Dr. Gail Heyman asserts that parents who lie to their children “have created a good deal of confusion about right and wrong and—maybe worse—undermined the child’s trust (369)”. Not only does a parent’s lie possibly cause a breach of trust, it confounds a child’s understanding about right and wrong.
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Your Parents – The Shadow Makers
Half of everything your parents told you is a lie. Did those lies hurt you? Did you know they were lies? Parents are, to their children, the shadow makers Plato describes in The Allegory of the Cave. The shadow makers work behind the scenes, carrying objects back and forth in front of a fire. The shadows thrown on the wall of the cave as a result is the only reality the prisoners know.
As a very young child you were a prisoner, held captive by the values your family chained you down with. Your parents decided how you should behave, what you should know, and what you should believe. Your only view of life was what your parents chose to tell you. This idea is suggested by Plato. “The truth would be literally nothing but shadows of the images (Plato 450)”. It was the same for you. Unable to see anything else, you took your parents stories for truth. You were happy in your cave, trusting the reality your parents fed you.
One of the big lies parents tell their children is the myth of Santa Claus. You are regaled with stories from infancy of a jolly fat man in a red suit who lives at the North Pole. All year long, Santa and his team of vertically-challenged North Pole citizens, whom are referred to as “Elves”, prepare for Christmas Eve by making toys. Ponderously, these same toys seem to be available at every toy store. This man, this Santa Claus, we learn is magical. He knows if we’ve been bad or good. Good little children get toys and bad little children get lumps of coal. So you must be sure to be on your best behavior - at least from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve when your parents are reminding you every five seconds that Santa is watching you. He even knows if we’re sleeping or not. (How does that little bit of the story not frighten more kids into hating Christmas?) On Christmas Eve, the man in the red suit loads all the toys into a big sled pulled by nine reindeer, one of whom as a big glowing red nose that acts as a fog lamp, and flies off to deliver joy and happiness to all the children of the world. Forget for a moment that we’re supposed to believe somehow reindeer can fly, we’re supposed to accept that Santa can magically squeeze himself and a giant bag of toys down thousands of chimneys without getting stuck? At least this myth has some understandable value. It teaches you about having faith in something, or at the very least it gives your parents a rest from all the fighting for a few weeks while you’re trying your best to make up for all the bad things you did that year in the hopes of getting a new bike.
The story of the Easter Bunny makes no sense at all. First of all, Easter is a Christian holiday celebrating the day Jesus was resurrected after his crucifixion. Did someone decide all the talk of death was too scary for the little kiddies and try to come up with something less frightening? Yeah, a six foot rabbit is a lot less frightening than dying and coming back to life! What does Mr. Bunny do on Easter? He brings you a basket filled with candy and leaves brightly colored eggs hidden in your yard. There is no obvious connection between the Christian story and the Easter Bunny story. What do dyed eggs have to do with Jesus? (Except for the fact that Jesus died and the eggs are dyed.)
If you think the Easter Bunny myth is conflicting and Santa is a little scary, consider the Tooth Fairy for a moment. Picture this, you’re about five years old and you have a loose tooth. You show it to your mom and what does she tell you? Put it under your pillow and the tooth fairy will come when you’re asleep and give you money for it. We’re supposed to believe that somewhere out there is a little winged fairy so obsessed with teeth that she’s compelled to slip into children’s bedrooms while they’re asleep and trade cash for their little incisors and bicuspids. What does she do with all those teeth? We’re never given a satisfactory answer to that question. Maybe where she comes from teeth are currency. Maybe she builds her house out of teeth. Maybe she doesn’t take the teeth at all, but magically turns them into quarters. No wonder this is one of the shortest believed lies parents tell their kids.
As you get older, the truth comes out. You start asking too many questions and your parents decide it’s time to tell you the truth or they just get tired of keeping the myth alive or some mean kid at school tells you the truth because he thinks you’re stupid for still believing at twelve years old. However you find out, the result is the same. First there is denial. You want to keep on believing. Perhaps, you aren’t sure which version of reality the lie is. The reaction to this kind of sudden appearance of truth is described by Plato. “Forced into the presence of the sun…his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities (Plato 451)”. The sudden shock of light makes reality confusing and blurred. It’s painful and you want to turn away.
Then the denial wears away. Oh the horror! Your little world comes crashing down around your sobbing little head. How could mommy and daddy have lied to you? You start wondering what else they lied to you about. After all, if they lied to you about such huge pieces of your childhood, they could be lying to you about other things. Did your mom really like that poem you wrote? Did your dad really love that tie you bought him for Father’s Day? Do they really think you can do anything? Do they believe you’re smart? Do they see you as pretty or handsome? Possibly you start to question if you can trust your parents at all. Have they ever told you the complete truth about anything?
Is there any harm done when a parent lies to their child? Last year, a psychological study was conducted which showed that when parents lied to their children, it did cause harm. In this study, Dr. Gail Heyman asserts that parents who lie to their children “have created a good deal of confusion about right and wrong and—maybe worse—undermined the child’s trust (369)”. Not only does a parent’s lie possibly cause a breach of trust, it confounds a child’s understanding about right and wrong.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
We do have voicemail
I'm having to spend my entire weekend working on homework. I managed to finish writing my paper for Psychology yesterday. Today I spent most of the day working on my Proposal and Essay for Writing. The proposal I'm happy with. The essay needs a lot of work. I hate the conclusion I wrote. Maybe when I have some time to think about it and go back to it, I can think of a better way to write it. By the time I got to that part today, I was just too exhausted to think clearly. I also worked on this stupid Time Management Assignment we have to do for College Survival. I bullshitted the whole thing because I am not going to waste my time jotting down every single thing I do all week and how long it took me to do it. It's pointless. I don't need to do that to know how to manage my time. Obviously I know what my priorities are if I'm spending an entire weekend working on homework! Tomorrow I have to do 2 more assignments for College Survival and work on my essay some more.
I'm pissed off at CJ again today. She has this weird thing where she thinks she has to answer the phone if it rings. If she's in the room, she will run and grab the phone before the second ring. She has even answered my cell phone a couple of times when I left it laying on the table! That is not ok! It is my personal cell phone, not a house phone. So today, I talked to my brother once. I told him when I hung up that I was going to be working on my paper. I thought he would get that I meant not to disturb me so I didn't bother to turn the ringer off on the phone. Lo and behold the minute I run to the bathroom, the phone rings. Immediately I hear CJ answer it. So I was forced to have a second annoying convo with my brother because she can't let the damn voicemail pick up. We have had conversations before about this. 1st of all no one calls her on the home phone...ever. Everyone she knows calls her cell. So why the hell is she worried about answering the phone anyway. 2nd, I told her before that if it isn't someone in her family, don't answer. We get stupid telemarketing calls all the time and there is no point in answering them. And I would rather let the voicemail catch the calls from people in my family if I'm not home or can't get to the phone so I will actually know that they called and why. CJ isn't real reliable about giving you messages. 3rd, she has said some pretty disrespectful things about some people in my family so I don't want her talking to them. Period. I don't want her pissing off someone and then having to deal with it when I call them back. 4th, If I don't feel like talking to someone I think I should have the option of not answering and not being forced to talk to them because someone else answered.
I'm pissed off at CJ again today. She has this weird thing where she thinks she has to answer the phone if it rings. If she's in the room, she will run and grab the phone before the second ring. She has even answered my cell phone a couple of times when I left it laying on the table! That is not ok! It is my personal cell phone, not a house phone. So today, I talked to my brother once. I told him when I hung up that I was going to be working on my paper. I thought he would get that I meant not to disturb me so I didn't bother to turn the ringer off on the phone. Lo and behold the minute I run to the bathroom, the phone rings. Immediately I hear CJ answer it. So I was forced to have a second annoying convo with my brother because she can't let the damn voicemail pick up. We have had conversations before about this. 1st of all no one calls her on the home phone...ever. Everyone she knows calls her cell. So why the hell is she worried about answering the phone anyway. 2nd, I told her before that if it isn't someone in her family, don't answer. We get stupid telemarketing calls all the time and there is no point in answering them. And I would rather let the voicemail catch the calls from people in my family if I'm not home or can't get to the phone so I will actually know that they called and why. CJ isn't real reliable about giving you messages. 3rd, she has said some pretty disrespectful things about some people in my family so I don't want her talking to them. Period. I don't want her pissing off someone and then having to deal with it when I call them back. 4th, If I don't feel like talking to someone I think I should have the option of not answering and not being forced to talk to them because someone else answered.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
It's going to be a crappy week
It's almost 7am and I have to catch the bus at 8. I feel like crap. I caught a cold, but that's only part of why I feel like crap. CJ kept me awake until almost midnight. She knows I have been sleeping on the couch and she knew I had to get up early, but she stayed up and made a lot of noise. I'm getting so frustrated. I really wish we could move tomorrow. I have a quiz today in WR121 and I'm not prepared. I just hope that I'm awake enough to study between my Psy class and that class so I don't fail. Tomorrow I have my first big Math test. I'm not looking forward to that either. Hopefully I will be able to get more sleep tonight than I did last night. There is no way I can concentrate on math if I'm sleepy and grumpy. This week cannot be over fast enough.
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