Go Create Some Reality

My well-oiled plan did not produce the best results.

There's something to be said for exploration, but then there's also something to be said for having a plan of attack. I enjoyed the luxury of dabbling in many subject areas my first two years of college, a luxury that I am paying dearly for now as I sit through the pre-requisites I put off and put off while I took the more interesting courses. To be honest, I probably could have used these classes a couple of years ago, rather than labor through everything the hard way.

I arrived on time but not early enough to secure a good seat (although, given the usual first-day attendance, I should be grateful for any seat at all). My horror of standing in line compells me every term to buy my books a week early; the girl next to me, the one emitting equally spaced non-commital hrmmphs every few moments, came prepared with a notebook containing a single piece of paper which she proceeded to cover, top to bottom, with equally non-commital doodles. The professor handed out a packet, labeled "Arguments". 

Socrates is a man? Socrates IS a man! I wonder, in all seriousness, how much of this could be taught to second-graders:

"What is this?"

(pregnant, or not so pregnant, pause)

"This is the subject. And this? This is the predicate. So what is this whole thing, together?"

"An argument?"

"No, this is a premise. But what is THIS whole thing, together?"

"An argument?"

"Yes."

"Yay!" 

And the peasants rejoice. Maybe some grammar schools already have this covered, but in case they don't - as mine surely didn't - I think we could safely take the next step and teach some basic logic to the kiddies. Douglas Hofstadter apparently had the chance, in his teenage years, to teach an elementary class some of this in an effort to see whether their nubile young minds could easily assimilate the information (and did this happen? I'm interested to know). Whether the results of that particular investigation were positive or negative, I think we ought to try again, give the kids a head-start on their syllogisms. It would really save so much time in the long run.

In keeping with my self-imposed stylistic constraints, I suppose there's also something to be said for repetition. I have a hard time drawing the line between useful repetition and the annoying: in first grade, copying the spelling list over and over and over again was annoying, but perhaps also useful (or at least, that was the general idea). Now, learning the difference between induction and deduction yet again is annoying, and I'm pretty sure it's no longer useful. This also applies to the number of times I'm assigned "The Republic", although an argument could be made that this is somehow good for me, or some under-accessed part of me that is not only busy at work internalizing this story but is also deeply, deeply concerned. 

This is fine. In many ways, it's also easier.

In an hour I'll be off to Sci-Fi Fantasy Land, where we will hopefully watch movies and be assigned hours of page-turning fun. I can't believe that I actually complained about taking this class - I should be grateful, if anything, for the delicious distraction.