Walking into McGraw Hall this morning is something I will remember for the rest of my life. I know that today was only the first day, and no text material was really covered, but I have so many plans to use what we will be learning. Professor Kramnick broke down the organization and requirements for the class. Unlike many other topics especially in high school this is a course that deals not with solid facts but rather with arguments and ideas. We will be graded not so much on what we say, but how we say and support it. I do not want to sound cliché; but as I was thinking about the reading we have already done and the discussions we will be having in class and with our TA – whose name Desmond – I know that I will remember this for the rest of my life. In this upcoming school year as I serve as Associated Student Body (ASB) President, I know that I will be using as much political philosophy as possible when handling all student government affairs. (I cannot wait to quote one of the philosophers while reasoning with the administration.) Class truly was the highlight of the day. I must admit the first discussion session, as well as the first writing workshop, were no joke. Thankfully, Julia, Justine and I are all in the same break our group for discussion. I am very glad we had time to read the texts prior to arriving. I am also very grateful to Mr. Ramsey for sending us so many informative emails. He certainly warned us that our course will be extremely challenging.
Lunch was also different today. For the first time we ate at Trillium, which is closer to our class. We are allotted $8.00 a day with our student ID cards. It is really nice to know that we can eat at more than one place.
Julia, Justine, and I are all together and getting ready to plunge into the New Testament. We plan to be doing many study sessions together. In attempts not to annoy our roommates we will be alternating between each of our dorms.
*Ramiah
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Ramiah,
ReplyDeleteYou might recall how hard Mr. Ramsey tried to engage you all in different discussions over the past several months and pleaded with you all to write of your thoughts. Can you now see that this was all just preparation for what you're being asked to do right now?
Hopefully even in your brief life you've seen the movie "The Karate Kid"? Throughout most of the movie Mr. Miyagi has Daniel performing tasks that make no sense to him: washing and waxing his cars, painting his house and sanding his deck. Finally, though, all of this makes sense to Daniel as he sees that these exercises prepared him with the skills he needed to practice karate (wax on--wax off).
This is much the same with what we've been trying to accomplish with our ILC kids. We've been trying to get you to learn the importance of sitting up front, arriving on time, speaking in front of others, writing essays and blogs and many other tasks that are really just skills we're trying to teach you.
Some of you are writing in your blogs demonstrating that these skills are now coming in useful.
When you write that you're alloted $8 per day is this supposed to cover all three meals? Are any of your meals covered with your dorm rooms? Eight bucks a day doesn't go very far these days and I just want to make sure we're not leaving any of you in the lurch.