I found myself sitting on my couch in Houston, on Thanksgiving of all days, faced with the prospect of writing an essay about the evolution of viruses and advocating for a public health response to this evolution for Bio 171. And yes, this is another Bio 171 blog. After bitching to my brother and attempting to pull my hair out, I began to question my entire double-major track. Yes, I want a degree in both kinesiology and music, but all these prerequisite shenanigans are testing this desire. My main beef with this essay is that I neither care about how viruses evolved, nor can relate it back to something I do care about. And my ability to relate things back to my, I think pretty varied interests, has been my saving grace on many occasions. But not this time. Oh no.
So then I had one of those “what’s the point” moments that I’m hoping we all do at some point in our academic careers. Other than passing Bio 171, a valid reason to be sure, since taking this class again would be a disaster of magnanimous proportion, what is the point of making an argument for something I don’t care about? I still feel that, beneath all of the things that can be picked out by the Toulmin method, great arguments have an “X-factor” that results from a genuine interest in the topic. People, in my experience, have an innate knack for unveiling that which is not real, and, as a result, writing something that is inherently unreal and half-assed creates a type of friction inside me, regardless of the grade I receive. And what does that grade really mean anyways? Congratulations, you’re good/mediocre/bad at writing about things that don’t matter to you? And I don’t even know which of those sit best with me.
Hey Matt,
ReplyDeleteSo after hearing that your blog is one of the most popular in the class, I thought I'd finally check it out. I can see why students like reading your blog. You write in a way that is easy and enjoyable to read, and about topics that others can relate to. Your writing is down to earth and humorous, and in this post, I can definitely relate to your frustrations of thinking "so what? Why should I care about this?" There are classes within every major that are really interesting and consequently others that some people find to be dense and boring. For you, it sounds like Bio 171 is that class. But I think by pursuing both your majors, somewhere down the road you will find that one argument with the X-factor that you will inherently WANT to write an essay about. If it's not through English 225, it may be found later in your studies or even through non academic experiences. But when you find it, you will see that writing an argument will no longer be a chore in order to obtain a grade, but it will be something you truly want to do because you care and are passionate about the topic. Until then, keep cranking out those arguments even though it causes friction within you. I look forward to reading more of your posts :)
Matt,
ReplyDeleteAs always, I thought your blog was thought-provoking. I definitely have had those moments where I have questioned my major.
Additionally, I think that the biggest problem with the education that we receive is that you often do have to do these stupid assignments that don't relate to our interests or our futures really. I feel like a lot of assignments in lower level classes are just given to provide you with a ton of busy work to thin out the herd and just determine who cares enough about their grade to do the assignment. I think that this is awful, but at the same time it is practical to some extent, because when we graduate we will have to do some things that bore us and we feel are a waste of our time.
I suppose the monotonous nature lower-level classes is why I am taking such high level courses next semester, despite having an underlying urge to take lower-level, easy classes. I don't want to waste my time with busy work, I want to learn something. I feel that upper-level classes, although often more difficult, are more rewarding, and that's what I'm looking for in my last semester here.
Hope the paper on the evolution of viruses turned out OK.
-James