Higher Education

Higher education is a privilege, not necessarily an opportunity for everyone. I am very lucky to have the opportunity to pursue my education further, but a majority of the students at my high school did not have the opportunity to finish high school, much less think about college. I wish that were not the case. I disagree with Du Bois - I don't really believe that there is a talented tenth that deserves higher education. I think that the opportunity to further one's education to one's satisfaction should be granted to all people, regardless of whether or not they fit into the "talented tenth".

Higher education and education in general have a lot of different meanings - it could mean trade school, it could mean training for a job, it could mean completing high school, it could mean completing a master's degree, it could mean taking a community college class, it could mean anything. I think that any of these opportunities can further one's "education". A lot of the learning that we undergo is not learned in a math textbook or a classic work. Granted, this kind of education is vital and important and provides extra insight into the world around us. However, if I've learned anything from Core - it would be the mysterious ways of identity and how it is shaped by experiences and those around us. Perhaps these are the most important factors in developing our minds and feelings.

How does it feel to be a problem?

How horrible must it have been for Du Bois to recognize that he was a problem to society as a whole? His description of his reaction to the girl refusing his calling card? Why was he not impassioned and angry? Perhaps it was just that he had discovered a norm and accepted it. The ways he remembers the reactions of "the other black boys" are interesting - "their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white; or wasted in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house?" (4) That whole passage is very moving -"the sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above." The passage is very bleak and depressing. The reactions of the people and their options are so hopeless.

This first chapter has really caught my interest. It has left me wondering what is to come from Du Bois....

Sputnik Sweetheart + Author

I am wondering why this man Haruki Murakami chose this particular subject matter to write about. I can't seem to be able to imagine how he connects to this plot or these characters. And it is really intriguing because the story is written in a semi-stream of consciousness way. I am always curious about how authors relate to their works....whether it's based on real life or just completely made up or has elements of someone else's life....very interesting to me.

When We Dead Awaken

I read this essay and immediately thought of what we've been learning in my Environmental Ethics class. We have been discussing ecofeminism and how oppression of the environment and women are connected. After reading many of Adrienne Rich's poems, I've begun to think that she would be an excellent candidate for an ecofeminist.

Adrienne Rich has made me wonder a lot. I wonder if we are in the age of an awakening? Would one be able to tell that we're in the process of awakening? What are we awakening to? Are only those looking back at the past aware of any awakening?


Just some questions that have been brought to mind after reading this.

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

I wish that there was some sort of all-knowing, all-explaining key to these poems.

I don't really like interpreting them by myself. What if I'm interpreting them wrong? What if I'm ruining what Adrienne Rich was originally trying to say? I'm afraid that she's going to happen upon my blog and just break down because I've twisted her words so horribly. That probably won't happen, but there's always the possibility. . . .

I wish that I knew what these poems meant. Although, I suppose that the point of writing poems is for readers interpret them. But we all come from different backgrounds and have had different experiences. How can one of us be "right"? What is the right way to interpret these poems?...only Adrienne Rich knows the right way.

I wonder what she meant. That's what poems are meant to do. Make you wonder. But I don't want to wonder forever. I want there to be an ending.

Othello - Iago - Demon?

Is Iago a demon? Mr. Hamm brought this up in class on Monday. It makes a lot of sense. Iago is completely demonic and evil. His only "true" reasons for ruining Othello's life are that maybe Othello slept with Iago's wife and that Othello promoted Cassio over Iago. And it's true, Iago tells different reasons all the time. And we were talking today in class about how Iago knows little things about people that will help him in bringing them down. That seems a little supernatural and mysterious to me. A lot of evidence points to Iago as a demon sent to destroy Othello - but why would a demon destroy Othello in the first place? What has he done wrong?

Just something I was thinking about...

Watching vs. Reading

I enjoyed our interactive class on Monday. It was a nice change. And Mr. Hamm (?) was really engaging. I definitely agree with him - watching Shakespeare the way it was meant to be experienced is a much better than reading it. I had forgotten that these plays were meant to be performed - not read in a classroom. I wonder if Shakespeare had ever imagined that his plays would be picked apart and analyzed in the classroom...

I haven't seen Othello in play or movie form. I'll have to do that. I think it might help with visualizing the scenes. I don't find Othello excrutiatingly boring and horrible. There is a significant amount of action and excitement. I would take Othello over Augustine any day. Augustine was not quite so intriguing.