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Wednesday, January 17, 2007
this is not what I am supposed to be typing.
In history class on Tuesday (history class! me! for a grade!) we were assigned an essay. Actually, we were told that we'd be assigned an essay pretty much every week for the whole semester: 'reaction papers' to current events stories provided by the instructor or dug up on our own. He said they should be five-paragraph essays, and in my dorky haven't-been-in-a-classroom-since-the-early-days-of-the-Clinton-administration naivete, I thought that meant, oh, hey, whatever. Around five paragraphs, you know, a page. Whatever. I do vividly remember being taught to write five-paragraph essays in I think the fifth grade, with the rigid academic format, but I honestly don't remember (although I'm sure I did) writing any essays like that in high school. I thought the whole "do it this way or else" thing was kind of like how they taught you in second grade that THERE IS ONE WAY TO MAKE A CURSIVE T OR ELSE YOU DIE. I found my current event, sat down at the table, wrote out a rough draft, and went to bed smiling because for maybe the second time in my life I had done my homework on the day it was assigned instead of the far more familiar day that it's due.
I was so wrong. I went a-googling and found out that indeed I do need to travel back in time to fifth grade and react to current events in five tidy, well-planned paragraphs. My brother, a high-school teacher, seemed amused and somehow bewildered that I would find this surprising. Of COURSE that's how you do academic writing, you silly sister whose mind is all muddled after a dozen or so years of a steady diet of that very informal Internet you love so much.
People, I just wrote an OUTLINE. What have I got myself in for?
And did I mention that there's a research paper? I wonder if the one I wrote in the sixth grade on Ireland would fit the bill. Probably not.
Comments
As I understand it, there are two reasons for the Electoral College, adn neither one applies any more. First, it would have been too hard to count and communicate all those votes at once, before computers and modern telecommunication. Obviously not true now. Second, Jefferson believed (I read this somewhere in his own writings) that if average people elect the best people they know of, you get mixed results, but if they elect the smartest and best people they know and then *those* people choose the best among the candidates, you get consistent excellence. The theory may be true still, but since when we pick electors now we don't actually know them, since we choose the actual candidate rather than saying, "Well, I trust Bob to decide for me", and since the electors don't really have the discretion to choose but go in with a commitment to vote for a certain person, the theory isn't being put into practice.
I'm convinced the Electoral College is broken. Whether it would be better to fix it or kill it off, I'm not smart enough to say.
Posted by: dichroic at January 18, 2007 02:01 AM
Actually, the two main benefits of the electoral college as I see the founders seeing it :) were the leveling effect it has regarding large urban areas, and the finer point of it being a practical demonstration of the fact that we are a group of states who happen to share a federal head, rather than a homogenous nation who happens to be divided into several states. This last point is not one that has much favor nowadays, as we've moved so dramatically toward a massive centralized government. But the first one is still quite apt, although as a conservative in California, I wish we'd adopt the kind of system Maine has where the results are largely broken down by congressional district. My presidential vote has essentially been tossed out every time I've cast it, even in the cases where my chosen candidate has won.
Posted by: Rachel at January 18, 2007 10:15 AM
Oh boy, a reaction paper every week? You are in trouble and not because you don't write tidy 5-paragraph papers. Watch out for friendly liberal professors who happen to disagree with your viewpoint! :)
Tidy five-paragraph papers? Really? Who knew? I didn't. Can you post a link to the information you found because I am drawing a complete blank here. Gah.
Posted by: mary at January 18, 2007 01:41 PM
I took an anthropology class once. We were asked to pick a religion, research it thoroughly (By actually attending services and interviewing just about everyone there) and write a twenty-page report. Not including the cover page, summary or bibliography. It was awesome. Sigh, I miss school.
Posted by: jenn at January 19, 2007 03:14 PM
I finished my paper!!! I am looking forward to seeing yours tonight!
Posted by: debi at January 23, 2007 12:48 PM
Oh, I forgot to mention that I changed the topic AGAIN and now it is on the death rate of prison inmates verses people on the outside.
As I am typing this, Nate says
"mom, did you know that scorpians kiss each other?"
Posted by: debi at January 23, 2007 12:53 PM
Hope you're doing well
Denise
Posted by: denise at January 28, 2007 11:50 AM
