Monday, July 15, 2019
After days of reading the passages of A. O. Scott, Warren Berger, Stephen Greenblatt, and Maria Popova, I have finished reading them and I'm pleased to say that I understood them much better as I progressed through them. As I had previously mentioned in my previous post, I had a difficult time comprehending Scott's argument, possibly due to elevated vocabulary or ambiguity in the idea. Honestly, I thought it would take much longer to finish the readings, but I'm surprised that I finished sooner than expected.
I enjoyed the readings from Berger's A More Beautiful Question much more than A. O. Scott's Better Living Through Criticism. It was much easier to understand, and much more agreeable, interesting, and relatable. Touching on that, I feel like when something is relatable, it's much easier to enjoy reading it and comprehend it better. I didn't feel that way at all with A. O. Scott's reading, and that's why it was really hard to get a grasp on what he was saying. A part of what I think Berger is trying to say is to explain the importance of asking questions and fostering that passion to question, especially at a young age. One of the quotes in the book that stuck out to me was this: "Is it not curious, then, that the most significant intellectual skill available to human beings is not taught in schools?"(66). This is a shocking fact that honestly exposes a lot of flaws in school systems. I feel like Galloway does a fairly good job at not shutting down questions; in fact, I feel like it's encouraged at times, but there could always be room for improvement, with maybe a more focused study on this ability of ours. Upon reading a section of the chapter discussing how initial purpose of schools was to produce workers, it reminded me of a really impactful youtube video I saw a few years ago that touched on that topic, called "I SUED THE SCHOOL SYSTEM !!!" by a youtube named Prince EA. Essentially, this video attempts to creatively point out many flaws in the modern-day school system, one of which being that the same system that was used over a 100 years ago to prepare children to work in factories when they were older is the same system being used today. I remember it left a big impact on me, and made me think a lot about why things haven't changed. This isn't to say that Galloway is a bad school because that's not the case. It's a really good school in my opinion, and a lot of those bad stereotypes that are true about some schools, are not what it's like at Galloway. At the end of it all, it's the idea of teaching how to question and nurturing that gift of being able to question that really resonates with me, and which I think is why I liked it the most out of the AP Lit summer reading passages. While I'm sure there's more to that reading that I may not have caught onto or fully understood, it definitely stuck with me the most.
"Is it not curious, then, that the most significant intellectual skill available to human beings is not taught in schools?"(Berger 66).
Renaissance Self-Fashioning was a little hard to understand, and I don't think I fully grasped on what he was describing, but what I could pick up on was this: I think he's saying that self fashion one's writing or one's self, it can relate to who they are what their culture is? What really stuck with me was the last reading of his. The "Epilogue" chapter where he recounts his experience on the plane with a man honestly haunted me. Even if he had good intentions, making someone say something like that is just horrifying and mortifying I my opinion. I'd feel uncomfortable if I was on either end of that situation. While I'm still not entirely sure about his argument, that ending did stick with me.
"There is no such thing as a human nature independent of culture"(Greenblatt, 3).
Maria Popova's Brain Pickings didn't really stick with me. A couple of them raised some good points and quotes about curiosity, wondering, and the imagination, and that I found interesting because these were all things I could relate to. As selfish as this sounds, it's the passages that feel more "like me" that are easier to read, and understand.
I feel like a huge part of why we are reading the passages that have been selected are to develop ourselves as both students and as citizens of the world. These themes of questioning, self-fashioning, and broadening creativity, wondering, and imagination are all important and crucial towards success in the world. It's my belief that the most important part of school isn't the content learned or facts memorized, but it's the skills and traits you take away from school that becomes the most essential tool in your future. I feel like these readings are catering towards that belief, and are a reflection of what we'll be doing in AP Lit this year. If I am not too confused by the readings, I think I'll enjoy learning about and using those skills a lot in the class.