Well, hopefully I can get this out on the blog. lol
Western Civ. is going to be a very interesting class. The reading in the book is as dull as in any other history book. But the professor is so passionate, there will never be a dull moment in class.
He started our class Tuesday saying there was one thing he knew about all of us, (his students); we can
think. "...humans, unlike other animals," he pointed that out from our book, we have the ability to think and rationalize, question and discover, etc.
The book took this out of this edition, but he thought it was important and printed out a copy, what Pascal said about humans;
"I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head (for it is only experience which teaches us that the head is more necessary than feet). But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute."
and this is most interesting;
"...if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this."
Wow. At first I thought...ok...that made little to no sense. But then our professor talked about it, and I read it again. Nature is ultimately stronger than we are. Floods, hurricanes, blizzards, earth quakes, etc. But the universe acts without thought. The ocean and wind don't get together one day for coffee and say, "Hey, New Orleans could use a good cleaning don't you think? Let's get together and destroy it."
Neither does, and I love this example, a camel wonder WHY it's a camel. Or what it's destiny on earth is. Or, if it should have been a horse instead.
The thing our professor wants us to do is learn about ourselves and individuals as we learn about history. Kind of, where we came from, and where we are now because of it.
He's a really cute old guy who is so passionate about his work, I'm really excited about the course. But not the reading. *sigh* The books we have other than the text book are all right, we have a book on the Black Death, a biography of Napoleon, and "All Quiet on the Western Front", but the text book is killer. lol
Biology is good too. The professor has interesting examples for us. He introduced the scientific method using termites. He placed them on some paper, and one started scrambling around and he said, "Maybe he'll stay if I draw a fence around him," so he drew a red circle around it. And it was hilarious to watch on the projector, the little guy just ran along the line, occasionally weaving inside and outside the circle, but always along the line. And when he added more lines, the poor thing started going in circles, confused. haha
Anyway, the point was observation, the termite follows the line. He had us come up with hypotheses as to why that was, like, the color, a certain chemical in the ink, or just the indention in the paper. And then he suggested ways we could test that. Different color inks, pencil, and leavng an indention without an ink mark.
Sadly he didn't tell us what the reason is the termite follows the line. lol. I'm curious, but I don't want to look online...I have the urge to get some termites and experiment with them. haha. Don't worry, I won't do it.
We also formed tentative groups for quiz taking. I think mine is permanent, it's a good group. But what we do with these what the professor calls "RATs" is we take them individually, and then as a group. And both are graded. We get clickers for the individual one. And as a group we have a cool scratch off sheet for putting in our answers. If you scratch off say, B, and it's blank, you're wrong and have to keep going. But say A has a star after you scratch it, it's right! We get, as a group, four points for getting it right on the first scratch, 2 for the second, 1 for the third, and none after that.
A girl who had taken his class before said it's a really good way to learn. And it's practical, because in real life situations in the work place there will typically be a group to decide what to do, like in a surgery, there's not one doctor, there's many. So, I like that.
After biology I walked with...let's call him Native. It fits because it's painfully obvious by his accent that he's a local. ;)
Anyway, Native and I walked to lunch and ate together. It was fun. He's really nice and easy to talk to. Hopefully we can do that every Tues and Thurs after bio. It's depressing to sit alone at EVERY meal. ;)
I plan to go to grandma's tomorrow afternoon. I guess I have to squeeze in Beagle-time after anthropology and before catching the bus.
Art should be interesting tomorrow, we'll start drawing.
All this reading in biology, history, and anthropology is really, eerie. They all are connected, which makes sense if you think about it. But it's cool that I'm taking them all at once. And psychology will fit in there too. I can't wait for that to start next Monday!
I did not go to the football game, as I have had my share of football in highschool.
However, hockey games, count me in! ;)
I may not post again until Monday, as there is no internet connection at Grandma's, but I'll be sure to write about what we do/did. ;)
Lots of love from your fellow thinker, Chelle
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