Today, I don’t want to talk about nature, exactly. But I do want to talk about what’s
natural. This blog entry is going to be
kind of a rant, even though I don’t really think rants are very effective forms
of writing. Lately I’ve been really
frustrated by the academic world. Actually,
I’ve been frustrated by it since I started college. High school was kind of frustrating, too,
when I think about it. It’s a weird kind
of frustration because I really enjoy learning, but the restrictions I feel
like academia puts on free thought frustrate me. The message I’ve been getting for a long time
is, “Write what you want, as long as you have one space between sentences, a
lengthy works cited page; worship MLA.”
This stuff infuriates me. What
happened to the meaning of people’s thoughts superseding punctuation? I feel like in some ways grad school,
college, and the academic world in general are crushing people’s natural ways of thinking, which is why I
think it’s okay to post this “rant” on the nature writing blog.
The dozens – hundreds? – of rules that come along with
writing drive me insane. So do the
amount of requirements that are necessary to finish any program and earn a
degree. For example, I want to write
creative fiction, yet I spend about 70-85% of my time analyzing other people’s
(authors’) writing, and only 15-30% of my time working on my own. I’m not trying to bash Chatham because I have
been learning a lot here, I’ve met a handful of really caring professors, and I
think at other schools the ratio of learning what you want versus what’s
required is even more extreme. But it
seems to me like there’s a big problem across academia. People are becoming so wrapped up in
requirements and specificities that we aren’t getting anywhere new in
education. People seem to have just
accepted these requirements, but I think at one time or another most of us have
questioned whether our academic pursuits are really benefitting us, whether
they’re benefiting anyone at all.
So, to relate all this to what is natural… I think learning
is something that occurs naturally. When
you’re a young kid and you touch a hot stove, you learn not to do that again
because it hurts. You didn’t need school
to learn that. There isn’t a “don’t
touch the hot stove” degree. By imposing
requirements on students, the natural way of learning becomes convoluted. I can’t offer a solution to this issue. We need to have requirements in order to
award degrees, and we need degrees in order to identify individuals who are
qualified to perform various jobs. I
just wonder if there isn’t a more organic approach to higher education.
Portia, I've experienced similar frustrations with higher education (and secondary education has it's own different host of pitfalls and problems). I've often felt like a liberal arts education is a matter of jumping through hoops. A handful of universities across the country offer degrees with an open curriculum--check out Brown's description here: http://brown.edu/academics/college/degree/curriculum. Also, in North Carolina, there's a pretty big push for outdoor education--making learning an integral part of living rather than a separate, strictly classroom phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteFinally, if you have some downtime (like we all do, right?), check out this Ted Talks with Temple Grandin who argues for a radically different approach to education: http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html
I hope these examples help a bit with the academia blues! Your insights in this post say to me that your frustrations with this system could provide you with the passion and inspiration to make changes.
Thanks for all that information, Addie! I can't wait to check out those links.
DeleteI appreciate your frustration and I do think you're right in that a lot of our old models of higher education - especially at the primary/middle/high school and undergraduate levels - aren't working to foster genuine insight and inquiry. In the context of the MFA program, the premise for reading others' works is that reading is an essential corollary to the creative process. But combining that work with the creative into a single class, however meant to streamline the process, may not be working for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mel! I've learned a lot through the educational system I criticized, I just wonder sometimes what it would be like if education was different.
DeletePortia,
ReplyDeleteI also wish there were more time to write built in to this first semester. I do think, especially at this level, it's very important to make what I want to happen happen for myself. In undergrad, it was much harder to control the outcome of my education. I'm getting this MFA for me, so I can be the writer and educator that I want to be.
I like the question that you pose. How do we learn in natural ways? The best classrooms I've been in have taught me how to learn in them, just like a good book of poems, or a great novel, shows you how to read it. Organic teaching is difficult, and not all teachers are good at it. I think at this level of education, conversation is *crucial.* It frustrates me immensely when a professor runs away with the discussion. I think we are beyond lecture now.
Thanks for your comment, Ian, and for reminding me that I'm getting an MFA because I love to write. I shouldn't let requirements overshadow the real reason I'm in school - to write.
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