Passionate teaching
Buddy J. Thompson
Issue date: 1/27/10 Section: Opinion
It's difficult for me to imagine life without higher education. It is not simply for the sake of some future career that I walk through the doors of Madison Area Technical College every day of the week. I am pursuing more here than the hope of a regular income, a suitable home and a tolerable, if not enjoyable, workday. When I take my seat in the classroom I do not do so with dire reluctance, but rather with an expectation and an attitude that at the end of the semester, perhaps even the end of a single class session, I will have enhanced my understanding and appreciation of a given subject and elevated my human experience all the higher. In short, I will have satisfied, at least in part, my thirst for knowledge for knowledge's sake.
To my great disappointment, however, our society (its scholarly factions included) has decided upon the unfortunate assumption that my generation, and those that follow it, lack a natural thirst for knowledge. They have decided to paint us in their mind's eye as career-driven Americans traversing a tunnel of education, internships and resumes, at the end of which is but a single light: the American dream.
While I do not wish to dilute the value of such a path, for many students and professionals follow it with admirable vigor; I will ardently admit that it is not enough for me.
I want more. I want a working knowledge of my government and all of the voting and editorial powers that come with it. I want the benefits of being fluent in multiple languages, from travel to the increased exercise of my mind. I want the themes and morals of literature at my beckon call so that I do not have to suffer the lessons learned by long-dead men. I want the awe-inspiring powers of drama and music within reach. For when I have faced the science that keeps me alive and the politics that keep me free, I must know that I have faced them for a reason: to live with an appreciation for existence that exceeds the mere satisfaction of survival.
To my great disappointment, however, our society (its scholarly factions included) has decided upon the unfortunate assumption that my generation, and those that follow it, lack a natural thirst for knowledge. They have decided to paint us in their mind's eye as career-driven Americans traversing a tunnel of education, internships and resumes, at the end of which is but a single light: the American dream.
While I do not wish to dilute the value of such a path, for many students and professionals follow it with admirable vigor; I will ardently admit that it is not enough for me.
I want more. I want a working knowledge of my government and all of the voting and editorial powers that come with it. I want the benefits of being fluent in multiple languages, from travel to the increased exercise of my mind. I want the themes and morals of literature at my beckon call so that I do not have to suffer the lessons learned by long-dead men. I want the awe-inspiring powers of drama and music within reach. For when I have faced the science that keeps me alive and the politics that keep me free, I must know that I have faced them for a reason: to live with an appreciation for existence that exceeds the mere satisfaction of survival.
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