Wednesday, November 16, 2005
An observation of the process…
I randomly saw the blond child from my Spanish class at the food court before I ran off to our class. I was upstairs and she was in the atrium below so I assumed a “Hi” would be futile at reaching her ears. I figured I could defer the greetings till her presence in our next class. Lo and behold she didn’t show. Blonde child has a habit of ditching class…I have attended every single one. While we are on the subjects of comparisons she has never taken Spanish and I have had two or three in the adventurous span of my life. Yet, she has stayed above par on our exams than I have? The process: Awaiting the entrance of the sweet blond child for class my hopes of having my diligent partner to speak to in nonnative tongues was once again shattered by her absence. My studious self turned to the dark haired blued eyed girl who sits behind me and asked, “Where is blond child? I saw her just before the class.” Her mindful reply was, “she just didn’t want to show up.” The process: God, I must have been born the most illogical creature on this earth. I just don’t get the most simple of logical process (I’m getting better everyday actually b/c of my job in the cube…but I would still rate myself light-years behind the top 2/3rds of my peers.) Algebra which I began studying in 8th grade is all about “Substitutions.” So our entire life we have actually been deeply involved and cognitively able to compute and communicate within the Algebraic world of Language. What’s the purpose of pronouns? Pronouns allow us to substitute. Example of the process, “I saw the blond child from my Spanish class.” Through our fine knowledge of language-Algebra we all have the know-how to easily shorten that sentence to: “I saw her.” The process: So, she didn’t show up Monday but she was at class today and guess what…she was kicking my sorry little butt on all the grammar and vocabulary handouts our teacher was dishing us. Then is dawned on me…she may ditch class but that action is a proactive stride for substitution. She uses that time to study. Here I am the faithful automaton finding ways to work with my class load and restricting myself to rigid rules and concepts that were never truly assigned. Looking at the problem I concentrated steadfast with the belief that one should attend their classes and work with the dishes of knowledge our professors serve to us on our own time. The process in action shows me through observation that one can trim some (not all, mind you, but some) of the fat of class participation and have better results if they substitute that time to study (a very methodological subject as a college) foreign language on their own. Now some may say, “What! A foreign language is not methodological…for language is living!” To them I would say, “Ask my Spanish professor what the purpose of college foreign language is.” He would say that we don’t learn to really communicate with Spanish in our colleges we learn more the methods of Spanish in our colleges.
Her process won’t work for me. After all, I work in the real world baby and missing work to skim the fat doesn’t’ fly in the confines of the Cube. Haven’t you ever known or are you yourself a person who says, “When the hell am I going to use this stuff in the real world,” in regards to Algebra? The real world is predicated on such ideology. When the world does not full heartedly embrace the concept of substitutions such shorts cuts will slow you down…mark my words she will pay for her shortcuts in the long run…(note I do not wish that upon anyone, It’s just my general observation for the “real world”) Now how do I explain my theory to her??? It won’t happen…that’s called the process of, “Picking your battles.” And that topic is one for a completely different blog. For now I’m in the process of forgetting my Algebra…Who needs it anyway?
I randomly saw the blond child from my Spanish class at the food court before I ran off to our class. I was upstairs and she was in the atrium below so I assumed a “Hi” would be futile at reaching her ears. I figured I could defer the greetings till her presence in our next class. Lo and behold she didn’t show. Blonde child has a habit of ditching class…I have attended every single one. While we are on the subjects of comparisons she has never taken Spanish and I have had two or three in the adventurous span of my life. Yet, she has stayed above par on our exams than I have? The process: Awaiting the entrance of the sweet blond child for class my hopes of having my diligent partner to speak to in nonnative tongues was once again shattered by her absence. My studious self turned to the dark haired blued eyed girl who sits behind me and asked, “Where is blond child? I saw her just before the class.” Her mindful reply was, “she just didn’t want to show up.” The process: God, I must have been born the most illogical creature on this earth. I just don’t get the most simple of logical process (I’m getting better everyday actually b/c of my job in the cube…but I would still rate myself light-years behind the top 2/3rds of my peers.) Algebra which I began studying in 8th grade is all about “Substitutions.” So our entire life we have actually been deeply involved and cognitively able to compute and communicate within the Algebraic world of Language. What’s the purpose of pronouns? Pronouns allow us to substitute. Example of the process, “I saw the blond child from my Spanish class.” Through our fine knowledge of language-Algebra we all have the know-how to easily shorten that sentence to: “I saw her.” The process: So, she didn’t show up Monday but she was at class today and guess what…she was kicking my sorry little butt on all the grammar and vocabulary handouts our teacher was dishing us. Then is dawned on me…she may ditch class but that action is a proactive stride for substitution. She uses that time to study. Here I am the faithful automaton finding ways to work with my class load and restricting myself to rigid rules and concepts that were never truly assigned. Looking at the problem I concentrated steadfast with the belief that one should attend their classes and work with the dishes of knowledge our professors serve to us on our own time. The process in action shows me through observation that one can trim some (not all, mind you, but some) of the fat of class participation and have better results if they substitute that time to study (a very methodological subject as a college) foreign language on their own. Now some may say, “What! A foreign language is not methodological…for language is living!” To them I would say, “Ask my Spanish professor what the purpose of college foreign language is.” He would say that we don’t learn to really communicate with Spanish in our colleges we learn more the methods of Spanish in our colleges.
Her process won’t work for me. After all, I work in the real world baby and missing work to skim the fat doesn’t’ fly in the confines of the Cube. Haven’t you ever known or are you yourself a person who says, “When the hell am I going to use this stuff in the real world,” in regards to Algebra? The real world is predicated on such ideology. When the world does not full heartedly embrace the concept of substitutions such shorts cuts will slow you down…mark my words she will pay for her shortcuts in the long run…(note I do not wish that upon anyone, It’s just my general observation for the “real world”) Now how do I explain my theory to her??? It won’t happen…that’s called the process of, “Picking your battles.” And that topic is one for a completely different blog. For now I’m in the process of forgetting my Algebra…Who needs it anyway?
# posted by Nick D @ 9:44 PM 
