Sympathetic Imaginings

This song talks about finding hope in oneself. We can no longer depend on other people's opinion but our own. Trust in oneself! Very inspirational, and pertinent to learning: "As long as you're learning/ You'll find all you'll ever need to know"


Christina Aguilera "Voice Within"
Young girl, don't cry
I'll be right here when your world starts to fall
Young girl, it's all right
Your tears will dry, you'll soon be free to fly

When you're safe inside your room you tend to dream
Of a place where nothing's harder than it seems
No one ever wants or bothers to explain
Of the heartache life can bring and what it means

When there's no one else
Look inside yourself
Like your oldest friend
Just trust the voice within
Then you'll find the strength
That will guide your way
If you will learn to begin
To trust the voice within

Young girl, don't hide
You'll never change if you just run away
Young girl, just hold tight
And soon you're gonna see your brighter day

Now in a world where innocence is quickly claimed
It's so hard to stand your ground when you're so afraid
No one reaches out a hand for you to hold
When you're lost outside look inside to your soul

When there's no one else
Look inside yourself
Like your oldest friend
Just trust the voice within
Then you'll find the strength
That will guide your way
If you will learn to begin
To trust the voice within

Yeah...
Life is a journey
It can take you anywhere you choose to go
As long as you're learning
You'll find all you'll ever need to know

You'll make it
You'll make it
Just don't go forsaking yourself
No one can stop you
You know that I'm talking to you

When there's no one else
Look inside yourself
Like your oldest friend
Just trust the voice within
Then you'll find the strength
That will guide your way
If you will learn to begin
To trust the voice within

Young girl don't cry
I'll be right here when your world starts to fall


Do we no longer think outside the box?

The fall of 2010 is fast approaching. John turned in his medical school applications early in the semester, now he is anxiously waiting to hear back for an interview. Dr. Phillips, a Senior Associate Dean at BCM, called to inform him of his interview. Apprehension and angst clouded his thoughts. The day finally arrived; he dressed up in his best suit, brought his resume, and tried to relax as best as he could. Dr. Thompson began asking questions about politics: with a female Democrat as president, radical reforms were being processed. John knew nothing about politics. He took Government at a community college for the summer, did nothing, and received an A. Instead, he spent four years studying Biology (Option II: Human Biology); yet, none of that is useful now. He can only regurgitate information found in his textbooks, no real life experience, no nothing. His dream of entering medical school was shot down right then and there. Too distraught, John applied to work at McDonald’s instead.

So, not everyone’s life is as melodramatic as that; however, my point is evident. If I were given the choice between a BS in Biology Option II and a BA in Plan II, I would definitely choose the latter over the former. Although I’m pre-med (isn’t everyone?), I will never again have the chance to discover the world and all it has to offer once I’m off to medical school, residency, and the real world. Professor Bump, in one of our recent conversations, mentioned taking only 3-4 classes per semester to take complete advantage of what each class has to offer. Why is that? I can surely say that most of us pick and choose classes that will yield us the “easy A,” more than the classes that challenge and inspire us. Doesn’t that notion completely undermine the definition of a liberal education or one that is “appropriate for free men” (318D)? Yet instead of the ability to freely select our classes, we choose to bind ourselves to menial servitude in undemanding, unchallenging courses. We lose our right-brain capabilities and surrender to monotonous life in its place. Creative juices no longer surge through our bodies; innovative minds become lackluster and lifeless. We devolve into senseless drones, like those in Brave New World. That is a systematic flaw best repaired through a liberal arts education, a more worldly thought process. Therefore, education is not only an "action upon our mental nature" but also becomes part in the "formation of [our] character" (310).

For me, our World Lit class epitomizes liberal education at its finest, encompassing four of the seven Liberal Arts: “grammar, dialectic (logic), and rhetoric...music” (318C). The amalgamation of these elements, including more modern ones in Humanities, produces scholars of great distinction not only in the university, but also in the workplace and the world beyond our own. We learn to think for ourselves, to read instructions carefully and completely, and to adapt from one another. Although we each come from different backgrounds, the close-knit class allows us to bounce ideas, form opinions, and learn from each other. We not only does it represent the "promotion of literature" but also the fusion of "arts and sciences" (304) through practical application of architecture, human nature, and the world around us.

As I’ve mentioned before, liberal education can occur both inside and outside of the classroom. By merely listening to other people’s stories, one internalizes a variety of perspectives and views apart from their own. By seeing how other people think, one diversifies his or her own way of thinking. One adapts and evolves according to his or her environment, which defines sympathetic imagination (“ability of a person to penetrate the barrier which space puts between him and his object, and, by actually entering into the object, so to speak, to secure a momentary but complete identification with it”). “’We have literature and the arts so that we can gain sympathetic access to systems of belief that are not our own…entertaining the beliefs that you don’t yourself hold but that it will be good for you to feel the force of’” (325). This worldly view can only be attained by constant communication with the world, the people around us, and nature. The study of languages, philosophy, sociology, sciences, and other humanities “narrow [our own] pursuits and desires and [helps] us understand others” (325). True, we may not be in various pre-professional colleges such as the Natural Sciences, Engineering, or Business, but the abilities and understanding we attain through our liberal education allow flexibility in any field due to our ability to think and not only regurgitate information.

Hence, I issue a challenge to each of you, including myself: find your passion(s) in life. Constantly reconsider your paths. Think about the endless opportunities available through a liberal education: law, humanities, arts, sciences, medicine, etc. Learn to think for yourself. Be not dismayed or disenfranchised by the thoughts of others, because you have thoughts of your own. Own an opinion and be ready to share it with anyone you see. And lastly, live a fruitful life, whatever that means to you.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave: Find the light at the entrance of your cave (knowledge as an "acquired illumination" [310]). Refuse to stay in the darkness.

Responses:

Charlotte brings up the YouTube video entitled “Shift Happens” and it quickly reminded me of Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near. In it, he writes about the concept of the “rate of accelerating returns.” The Law of Accelerating Returns states that the rate of change via paradigm shifts that occur in the human race is not linear (rate of technological improvement is constant), but is instead exponential (starts of slow then quickly slopes up). So instead of seeing computers that match our mental capabilities in the next 50-100 years, it’s shortened by a fraction due to the increasing rate of change. The need for degree and job-specific functions heighten the need for students studying specific vocations (i.e. engineering or computer science), depicting the antithesis to liberal education.

“Already, the changes I've noticed from the time this picture was taken in everyone, myself included, are immense.”

I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. I feel such deep connections between my colleagues and my professor, like we’ve known each other for centuries. I’ve grown up so much in the month and a half I’ve been at UT, with the definite help of Plan II and our World Lit class. I’ve heard so many stories, seen so many faces, and learned so many names: a collision of 52,000 lives onto a confined space. Blissful.

“This year, in E 603, we have been asked to embrace technology as part of our liberal education. Computers and the internet facilitate the exchange of complex information, media that triggers multifarious receptor-functions in the brain.” –Wiley

Wiley brings up the fact that Liberal Education doesn’t only reside in the seven forms mentioned in our readings; it evolves with the times to include digital media, among others. No longer do we have to travel distant lands like Alexandria to attain such sophisticated education found in today’s educational system; now, a majority of the information available to mankind, true or false, is propagated through the world-wide web.

“A liberal education – the essence of Plan II and the aim of an idealized college – enables individuals to create themselves.” –Wiley

Pursuing a liberal education helps us discover our identities through our passions. In Plan II, we take various classes in the arts and sciences to guide us in finding our true passions: be it art, architecture, or science. We are able to derive from various sources and unify our purpose based on what we have learned in class and from one another.

“Graduates must be familiar with a myriad of disciplines because they very well may need them all in their lifetime as learned skills and techniques constantly become obsolete. Plan II recognizes this phenomenon, and addresses it by emphasizing an “[…]education that lays the foundation for a future of self-education” (Education Without Boundaries).” –Charlotte

Charlotte connects the need for adaptation within the workplace to the discovery learning found in Plan II. She calls it a “phenomenon” and implies something out of the ordinary; yet, the need for self discovery is innate in each human being. Learning from a “myriad of disciplines” is exactly what college should be about; we don’t need to know about the specifics of surgery or advanced microbiology, for they are subjects to be taken up in medical or graduate school. College should be a time of discovery: spiritual, mental, physical.

“Giametti stresses that we should avoid “arrang[ing] all of our future now (321),” I do know that in the future I want to help people in any way through open-mindedness and self-love.” –Julie C.

It’s difficult not to think about our future in the present; yet, what Giametti and our World Lit class stresses is the importance of the now, the present. Sometimes, we think too much of the future, or how much we messed up in the past; yet, little do we know that it’s the present that makes a difference. Our World Lit class is structured this way. We ease our way through the various questions that lead up to our existence and our present and focus on how that has changed us to be who we are now. We all have goals in mind: to become a doctor, a lawyer, a helper, a millionaire, an architect, a subservient wife, a selfless mother, etc. So, maintain that open mind and selfless heart, Ms. Julie and never lose sight of your goals!

“Depending on your perspective, the capitol is either directly centered from the Main Building or slightly off-center. You can’t really tell from looking at these pictures.” –Julie P.

I love it! Is democracy centered in our lives? If not, how are we to become guardians of democracy? How are we to uphold the voices of the people through our cultivated minds? Like Laude’s speech during OAS, do we have the moral obligation to spread literacy and free-thinking to our peers and colleagues?

“By being accepted into Plan II, I am getting the best learning experiences offered at the UT.” –Jessica

I have always been told that education knows no price. Why then do we aim for private universities, worth as much as all four years combined at UT? Universities should be ranked based on the quality of education each person can receive, not on the worldly prestige or government funding it receives. If that is the case, then UT, especially Plan II, should rank among the top-tiers of the list. “What starts here changes the world” after all, right?

“When I connected education with everyday life, I began to understand the benefits a well rounded education, which is what liberal education offers, can have on my life.” –Jessica

Usually, we fail to understand why we have to do certain things, like RDBs and diversity excursions, for they appear pointless and irrelevant to life. But when you think about it, it’s not immaterial at all! There’s a purpose to everything, although the outcome might be subtle or inconspicuous. The constant chores we have to do for school each correlate to an underlying concept of hard-work, time management, unity, etc. necessary for the real world.