What I learned in College

My Intro to Communications class is taught by this guy who really has a lot of connections in the media world.

It was one of the first classes, and we all were supposed to say a bit about ourselves when the teacher called our  name for roll call. Especially something media related, like our favorite movie, tv show, etc.

So this one girl says, “My favorite actor, and I think he’s really hot…is George Clooney.”

The professor then says, “You know, I’ve met George Clooney a few times. He’s not really that tall, but the guy has enormous hands.”

I learned in college that George Clooney has enormous hands.

There’s this girl in my intro to education class that is completely unique just because of the way she talks. Her name is Nichole. She has this really nonchalant low voice. She sounds like she’s just cool with everything and doesn’t get that upset. But she speaks up all the time.

After a while I all of the sudden realized that I was trying to talk like Nichole without even realizing it.

My PDP instructor once had a bee go up his nose. In killing the bee, he broke his nose.

“It is important to know what you don’t know.” My PDP instructor is full of all these amazing intellectual sounding quotes. We had just read this booklet called “Why do I have to take this course?” which talked about why we have to take courses we don’t like in order to get our degree.

But our teacher then told us, after making us read the book, that the book did not have the real answer to the question. The real answer was, “It is important to know what you don’t know.”

Lyndon Johnson used to get right up in people’s faces when he talked to them. It made them uncomfortable. (I did a google image search on him…it’s true.)

Back to my Intro to Communications professor. He had this story today, about what can interfere with our communication. Years ago he was at the fair with his girlfriend, when he saw a sign advertising “midget races.”

“Hey! we should go see the midget races!” He said.

His girlfriend got mad and walked away.

He ran after her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I can’t believe you think it would be funny to watch midgets race. I thought you were more sensitive than that,” she said.

“But it’s not small people racing,” he said. “It’s normal-sized people racing in small cars.”

Did you know that in some countries, people are embarrassed to admit that they don’t know directions? So if you ask them for directions, they will give you really bizarre complicated directions that make no sense. They’re trying to hint to you that you need to ask someone else, because they don’t have a clue.

If you say, “can you clarify that?” They’ll give you even more bizarre and weird directions.

Teachers in Virginia are not allowed to form unions or strike.

Here’s another quote from my PDP instructor. “We should not be afraid of books. The books aren’t dangerous, it’s what we do with that knowledge that is dangerous.”

And again. “A liberal arts education sends you out to fix problems. But we can’t fix the problem until we know what the problem is.”

Yeah. I just decided that I should go through all  my notes I’ve taken so far, just to read them and remember what I learned about. It makes me feel so intellectual. But of course, being the kind of person I am, if someone talks in class about having a bee go up their nose, and subsequently breaking their nose in an attempt to kill the bee, it’s going in my notes.

I am loving college. Probably because I haven’t had to do any research yet. All my writing assignments have been stuff like, “describe yourself” or “write about how you came to be at Bridgewater College.”

But hey, I got my first college grade, and it was %100!!! It was a paper on myself that I had to write for Intro Comm.

And just for the record, I have four classes. Intro Comm, Oral Comm, Intro Educ, and PDP. I probably will mention PDP a lot and you probably wonder what PDP stands for.

Bridgewater College has this program called the “Personal Development Portfolio” (PDP). Everyone is required to take it. I guess the point of the class is to make sure that you get something from your college experience besides just facts crammed into your head. That you develop as a person, too.

Today we spent most of the class talking about the Koran burning in Florida. Which just makes me mad on so many levels. Not that we discussed it in class, but that people would actually stoop to that in the name of Christianity.

Girr.

Anyway, enough for now.  Something about college gives me a weird posting obsession. I  kind of like it.