the disappointing anthro class
I started out this summer semester with a lot of optimism. I thought that my 200 level Cultural Anthropology class was going to rock. No, seriously, I did. I was really excited! I was going to learn about tribes and environments and hunting methods and pottery and all sorts of neat stuff from neat places that I had never heard of and the very root of human desire and human nature would be revealed and I could die a happy (wo)man. Instead, I'm now stuck in a class that feels like junior high with a professor who means well but is a little bit insane/stupid.
For one, all we're doing is learning terms! Instead of learning about other cultures and then in the process becoming familiar with terms, we're going through the terms one by one. Then we get these little bite sized chunks of other cultures in order to demonstrate our newly learned term. I mean, what the hell! Aren't we in college?! We aren't children and if I had wanted to learn a bunch of terms I would've started memorizing the dictionary a long time ago and saved my parents a bunch of cash. I mean, honestly! This is so SESS (spanish word, english word, spanish word, spanish word) that I am pretty disgusted. This is a 200 level college course. Good F-ing lord.
Secondly, in explaining these terms he treats us like a bunch of 'tards. Although some of the things that the people say in the class are making me begin to think that I may have overestimated my peers. For instance, we were talking about farmers and how they farm and live in a village but they rotate their crops on different plots so as to not exhaust the nitrogen in the soil. He even drew a diagram with the village in the center as a circle that never moved and he drew rotating plots around it. Then he asks us what are some characteristics of this type of living scenario. A girl says, "semi nomadic." !?!?!R#L:$J!@P$(&*!@)$(@#)$*(!@)#*(!@)#!#?!??!?#~??
OH. And THEN! And then he started talking about how stupid it was that Computer Scientists are developing AI because what's the point of computers with human intelligence when he can think just fine, thank you very much.
My favorite is when he told us that culture is like software installed in our brain. When we came into class today, we knew not to sit in our seats with our backs facing the front or to come in half naked. How? Well, you see, we just found our "acceptable classroom behavior" folder in our brains and pulled out some data to see what was custom in this society.
I'm sorry, I'm at a loss of words. I just, ...it's beyond me. I'm just realizing now how good I had it at Trinity and Exeter.
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