Looking at the Emerson quote, "Character is higher than intellect" and then examining the article we read really got me thinking about society and how we overlook the right moral and intellectual character and look just at the intellectual side. I can relate with the girl mentioned in this book because I know how hard it is to work for everything you have and still put you time in at a prestigious university trying to better life for yourself and family.
It is interesting to look at how everything is so skewed on what makes a person moral. We take for granted that just because we may say we are moral and have learned it from many people, a lot of people in todays' world are not as moral as they say they are. We are constantly learning and everything we do, every person we meet in some way plays some form or fashion on the person we ultimately are. We learn characteristics, knowledge, and intigrity from all facets of life. What we fail to do is realize this and apply the good to ourselves to better ourselves. You can learn about being a good person or doing the right thing, but the test is if you will actually apply it to yourself or if you just think about it and not act upon it. Every person plays a pivotal role in who we are. From the time we are born to the time we die. Each new experience or interaction is in some way connected to us as a whole.
As a student, you sit in class and think how you might do things differently if or when you were the professor. Now you have learned what you percieve are the do's and don'ts to teaching a class. The thing is, I bet more times then not that a given perosn will teach just like the professor before him because it obviously played a natural role in how he learned the material he is teaching. It is always easy to be a critic and say you would do it differently but in the end we are creatures of habit and instinct and we tend to do what we know.
Se la vie
-SWS II
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Intellectual or Moral Virtues in Academia?
Today in class we discussed Artistotles views on Intellectual virtues and Moral virtues. When we broke into groups we discussed or rather went on a rant about the way college's conduct themselves on grading and how society has accepted this GPA scale for how "successful" you are. From what I have learned, college is the yearning for a person to want to expand their mind and become a better person. With this thinking of GPA is all and how society focuses on getting the highest GPA possible, it leaves little or no room for freedom of thought. We have been taught that grades are the only things that tend to matter up. What ever happened to the idea that we are in college to not only test ourselves and better ourselves but to become better as a person? We praise this idea that the higher the grade you get, the "better" or smarter person you are.
I for one am terrible at taking written tests because of a lack of reading comprehension and focus. Thus I tend to get below average grades in many of my classes because it is simply a read and regurgitate method of teaching. Todays' society prides itself on learning the material for the time being then never remembering it again. Thus it feels to me like we have lost site of what college is really about. Its frustrating to know that for a lot of jobs, they make first impressions off of you through a peice of paper (resume) before they even get to know you as a person. I know the material, I have great work ethics and I am great with people. The thing that scares me about todays society is that we look waaaaaay beyond that of the moral aspects of people and only look at the intellectual side.
We have lost the moral side of college where we learn through teaching, habit and then instilling these habits to everyday life. My ultimate question with all of this is, Is this actually how college is intended to be or should we strive for something more? I for one know what I am capable of but when placed on paper and put side by side with another, it is easy to be "tricked" into picking the other.
"We are not here to merely make a living. We are here to enrich the world" - Woodrow Wilson
-SWS II
I for one am terrible at taking written tests because of a lack of reading comprehension and focus. Thus I tend to get below average grades in many of my classes because it is simply a read and regurgitate method of teaching. Todays' society prides itself on learning the material for the time being then never remembering it again. Thus it feels to me like we have lost site of what college is really about. Its frustrating to know that for a lot of jobs, they make first impressions off of you through a peice of paper (resume) before they even get to know you as a person. I know the material, I have great work ethics and I am great with people. The thing that scares me about todays society is that we look waaaaaay beyond that of the moral aspects of people and only look at the intellectual side.
We have lost the moral side of college where we learn through teaching, habit and then instilling these habits to everyday life. My ultimate question with all of this is, Is this actually how college is intended to be or should we strive for something more? I for one know what I am capable of but when placed on paper and put side by side with another, it is easy to be "tricked" into picking the other.
"We are not here to merely make a living. We are here to enrich the world" - Woodrow Wilson
-SWS II
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