impressions

My first week in school has almost ended (accept that I have to attend my Bio lecture between 4-6pm on a Fri evening. Yucks. But anyway.). I think this will be an exciting semester, though, besides the fact that I'm taking physics and bio modules (in this case, its more of 'shock' than 'excitement'. But I digress.)

My Arts modules are much more worthy of comment. Above all else, my first impression of my Arts lecturers is that "my, these are really enthusiastic people". You can just so totally sense the 'fire' and enthusiasm in them.

Coincidentally, my Arts modules this Sem are all by historians (a cultural historian, a gender historian and an intellectual historian; the latter studies the history of ideas, just in case that wasn't clear, since all historians are, well, quite intellectual. Just look at me! :p). However, only one is really a history module (but even then, the disciplinary boundary is kind of iffy because of the content). Then again, cultural studies are like one of the more recent areas of historical interest, so I guess its good for me to gain some exposure in these 'cutting edge' areas, regardless of whether I choose to move on to academia next time or decide to devote my life to the nurturing of the nation's hope.

In any case, I feel kind of lethargic still. It's a bad excuse, but I think the previous semester really just drained me. As a friend commented, after a few semesters you just get sick of the readings-lecture-tutorial-CA-Exams cycle with all that bell curve nonsense. For once, I have only done half a piece of reading, and its already almost the end of Week One! I haven't even downloaded them ,let only read them. Gosh, better pull up my socks.

Anyway, the assignments are pretty interesting too, and I actually can start working on them soon. No more of those one or two week mad rush to churn something decent out, on top of juggling other priorities. Hmmmm.

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Anyway, some more articles I came across, like religion finding "secular surrogates" in the modern consciousness, and another article on education's need for passionate teachers, although personally I disagree with the author's subtle equation of passion for a subject as a dominating pre-condition for excellent educators. Can't good teachers be average achievers in a subject's competency? After all, pedagogical instruction is a different ball game altogether from having an excellent grasp of a subject.

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