The school system gets a lot of flack these days for its design and goals. Standardized testing, rigid coursework and rote memorization are pointed to as the cause of education’s failures. This is not a post specifically critiquing any kind of education systems. Looking back, I actually feel I excelled in this system. I was by no means a genius in the eyes of the school system, but I showed up, took my tests and got my diplomas. However, I feel like the thing I lacked in this system was genuine curiosity. Today, I have questions I seek answers to, but not the structure or system to encourage I actually do so.
Engaged in English
Memories of my time in high school are seldom of classes or coursework, but of the friends I made and various shenanigans I found myself in. There was one standout exception, my high school junior year English class. This class was notoriously challenging and gave reputation to its teacher, Mr. Kroc.
In all my years of learning at that point, I was able to float my way through the education system. Taking this class was, in my mind, just another rung in the long ladder of high school. This was the first class I ever felt it was up to me to care about learning.
English classes up to that point were largely built around reading a book and taking a test about what happened. I can’t recall any exploration of themes or deeper analysis of a work in those earlier classes. In Kroc’s class however, we read through a binder of curated poems and short stories. Classes were mostly open discussion about what a given piece meant. The symbols used, historic context and personal interpretation were all valid discussion points.
In one particular class, we were discussing a poem that I unfortunately can’t remember. The class was quiet save two guys ones offering any ideas, and at one point, Mr. Kroc just said something to the effect of, “well if no one else wants to have a discussion, just take a study hall.”
After a few minutes, a guy sitting nearby and I began discussion the poem, and we came up with some ideas. We walked up to Kroc’s desk and started telling him what we thought. He responded with a calm “you should have been willing to share earlier.” It was one of the first times I had to actually engage with a piece of literature and critically engage with my own ideas. I just had to be willing to share my thoughts with the class.
This was also one of the first classes I ever had to perform proper research. One of the handful of papers for the class was a submission in a Chicago area essay contest. Students were allowed to choose their topic with some guidance on scope and material from Mr. Kroc. I couldn’t say why, but I chose to pursue “Chicago’s impact on the 1960 election.” The best I can remember, it was likely believing in all kind of conspiracy with the mob’s connections and their effect on the election. I remember being incredibly bored and couldn’t say it was what I expected, but it was a question I wanted to pursue.
Going Away to College
As high school came to an end, I was off to college. Paying tens of thousands of dollars to get a degree and run cross country. The latter makes up the bulk of my college memories. Running was such an anchor for my time in college. It defined the people around me, how much time and energy I had and certainly the highs and lows of college.
The coursework I had was, at the time, second to running and spending time with my friends and teammates. There were a handful of classes that I enjoyed and remember fondly. Some for their material, others for the people I shared them with. As a business and economics major, my degree coursework wasn’t particularly difficult or about new challenging ideas. Something unique the college I went to, Loras College, offered was a set of courses they called “Advanced Gen Eds.” These were required classes built around a handful of theme with one set being the “Cluster,” a set of two Advanced Gen Eds taken in the same semester with a linked idea. For example, the cluster classes I took were Astronomy and Mythology and the Cosmos. The idea being a link between the stars and the stories behind them. These were always a nightmare for semester schedules, and I imagine most of my fellow students despised these at the time. Looking back, I do wish I invested a little more into these classes. I honestly can’t even remember the other three required Advanced Gen Eds I took without looking them up.
Entering college, my plan was to major in marketing. I had a genuine interest in the industry and it was an easy choice. I added the idea of business management and finance after talking with one of the captains of the cross country team, due to the overlap of courses needed across business majors, double and even triple majoring was a relatively simple process. My advisor at the time was one of the few Economics professors encouraged me to switch out my finance major with econ. This required more planning than the triple business major, but was still manageable.This deviation from my original plan was from a spark of real interest in the analysis side of economics.
My econ major even required me to write a thesis, another opportunity to explore a question of my own. I chose to research the effect of an at the time recent Obama era policy expanding unemployment benefits in response to the recession. I remember having a good time combing through government data and running some math analysis that would be a foreign language to me now.
While actually writing the paper and presentation side of my thesis was far less interesting, although it’s one of the handful of college coursework memories I remember deeply. I remember the actual spot in the library basement I sat until the early hours of the morning writing with a split screen playing the first season of Digimon for background noise.
Asking My Own Questions
These opportunities to search for answers to my own questions is the spark that created this blog. The research when I started was my own micro experiments, and the results were my own observations. I haven’t had the pull to return to any experiments or challenges, but I’ve been thinking more about questions that I lack the answers.
Years ago, I remember an episode of the Tim Ferris podcast in which the guest, Dropbox Founder Drew Houston, listed a handful of books he called his “course for aspiring executives.” I shelved them on Goodreads and only ever got to reading one of them. While my interests have diverged away from business subjects and material, the course concept of this list intrigues me. Taking a handful of high quality resources on a given subject and learn from them. Not just check off the to do, but understand and engage in the work.
As I mentioned, I didn’t really engage with many of the classes I took in college, even those I had genuine interest. I prepared for my tests, did the homework and got my degree. Creating my own “course” might just be what’s needed to reengage that part of my brain.
Here’s some questions to start. These may not have a “course” worth of investigation, but can maybe build up ideas and questions into a larger field of knowledge.
Here are a few ideas from the time of writing this post:
- What does my local government actually do?
- Illinois has its local elections tomorrow, so I wish I thought of this one sooner. I’ve already cast my ballot for this cycle with the little information I found online, but hope to build a greater understanding for the long run.
- I managed to compile a few questions regarding philosophy.
- Who are today’s philosophers? What are their key ideas?
- What is the current philosophical movement?
- I enjoyed many of the twentieth century post-modernists I’ve read. Are we still in the same overall movement? What causes a philosophy to become a while new movement?
Do you have answers for the above? Where or how did you learn them? What are the questions you will pursue your own answers?
Trying Out Before Buying In 