some whine with your cheese

So now a couple of people have posted on the nature of the class this semester, but here’s my two cents:

This semester has been anxiety-ridden in terms of academic performance for me. And I blame most of that on the endless information I get from the blog and the wiki. Two of my classes have blogs, which means that no matter where I go, I can’t leave class. There’s always a discussion going on that requires a response or extra reading to do so you don’t repeat a point made on the blog in class or just an interesting link. That’s my first complaint (or maybe just an example of my laziness).

Second, the nature of the class has laid bare the differences in skills that we all have. In a traditional classroom, you usually get to hear other people’s comments (which aren’t often life-changing because we’re just throwing ideas around on the spot) but you never get to read their papers. So you can glide along with the illusion that people are all sort of equal. However, the class projects (and blog posts and the wiki posts to a lesser extent) make it clear where you stand in regard to the rest of your classmates (especially in terms of skills not often required in the average Pomona English class). And for students of a major that seems to be pretty free with giving good grades, it can be pretty shocking. I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but after the recent spate of celebrities’ genitals being exposed online (and I’m mainly thinking of Britney Spears here), I wanted to say something about the perils of too much information. And using the class blogs as an example seemed more polite.

Looking over this post, it’s clear that I’m just whining. And I really did like the set-up with the blog because it forced me to get a lot out of the class. I’m just saying there are drawbacks for the sensitive of self-esteem.