extra

As you may suspect, this is a blog entry that I am writing rather than doing my homework.  I am so rebellious.   But I suppose it's a good opportunity to continue some thoughts about education.

This term, I am taking a sociology class. This class marks the first class outside of engineering that I have taken in over a year.  I've been getting further along in my major and I've been focusing solely on engineering for a while now.

This 'become absorbed in your major' deal is actually part of the program.  You start taking specialized classes (for example, an entire series of classes dedicated to the various manners in which temperatures can change.  I now know more than is comfortable about the subject) and you start thinking and speaking like (in my case) an engineer.

For example, I have replaced all words denoting 'a part of a whole' or 'a contributing piece of something' with the word "component".  I didn't actually take note of this until I was referring to a meal I had made and its various components.  Who even uses ingredients these days?

Figure 1. The sandwich and its components.

I didn't realize just how far down the engineering path I was, though, until I took this sociology class.

I've always been a pretty diverse student, in the sense that I find many topics interesting and do relatively well with them.  This was especially evident during high school, when I had as much opportunity as I wanted to be involved in as much advanced math and science, politics, history, foreign language, literature, and music as I wanted.  So naturally, I took as many classes as possible in all of those subjects, and things were great.  On occasion cross-curricular themes would develop and the whole place was a bit of an educational wonderland for me.

I just figured that things would stay that way.  And I didn't really notice that I had become so focused on engineering that I had begun to let go of some of those other subjects I like.

Part of this happens, of course, because you simply cannot find time to take all of the interesting classes and still graduate with an actual degree before you're 55 years old and under a mountain of student debt.

So thank goodness for generals.  They take a precious few classes from outside your major and make them required so you'll actually be able to take them. :)

I thought I had a decent sociological background such that this new venture would be enriching and fun, and nothing else. So far it has definitely been enriching and generally fun (provided it's not kept me up past midnight) but also surprisingly difficult.

Maybe it's difficult because I underestimated the complexity of the social sciences. Maybe it's difficult because it's an in-depth course on something that I now realize I have no basis for.  I realized for the first time that I should probably read Marx rather than just know about it.  Maybe it's difficult because I am still trying to wrap my brain into this new style of thinking. I can no longer quantify relationships with equations and theorems.... instead the answer to "are farmers influenced by economic motives or lifestyle and family motives?" is "yes."

But there are definitely some things that I love about it, that I just don't get as much in my engineering. There is a lot more discussion and reasoning things out as a class, rather than just running through formulas on a screen.  And in sociology, every case is incredibly unique; you will never evaluate a bunch of situations or outcomes that are the same over and over and over.

I have at times heard criticisms of the current graduation requirements that students take several in-depth general classes in things that are outside of their major or intended career. We live in an increasingly specialized world where the more I know about my chosen field of study, the better I am in it, and I can easily find someone else to do things for me that are outside of my expertise. (That is why we have doctors and accountants and teachers and why services make up a huge part of first-world economies.) Under this logic, it may seem less and less necessary to obtain a general education at the collegiate level.

I do not subscribe to these criticisms or beliefs; in fact, I wish that higher education better encouraged cross-curricular study and general education.  I intend to describe some of the perceived benefits of such an arrangement in later posts. For now, I'm still talking about this strange world of sociology that I've stepped into and how it rocked my little engineering world.

So, in this sociology class we have been focusing on sustainability in agriculture, with especial regard to all of its social elements.  I have read more material than I ever imagined anyone could even publish on trends in farming, political farm issues, use of pesticides, the organic industry, how farms are structured, and so on.  I cannot say that I have learned anything even closely relevant to my intended engineering career. But I still find this an invaluable part of my education.

What I have learned, that I believe will benefit me as a human who intends to live in the world and be an engineer there, is that there is (surprisingly) this whole other world outside of engineering.  Oh sure, I always figured it was there, but sometimes it loses its palpability as you hone in on heat transfer and machine design, and especially as you spend more and more hours in the engineering building, avoiding all social life as you try to churn out homework solutions fast enough.
Well, enough of that. I'm here to embrace a little bit more the social aspects of life that I've begun learning about.

I haven't learned anything helpful about dimensioning and tolerances, but I have begun to see myself as a contributor to a larger society than just the scientific community.  I may not be learning to design tractors, but I am gaining a new understanding and respect for the people who use them. I still don't understand Thevenin circuitry, but I have begun to be aware of patterns in the world that will affect how I act, how my contributions as an engineer might really effect people and their lives, and how those causes and effects are related even to my isolated life as an engineer.

So while this class is certainly not an easy ride and you would think that an engineering student would have enough on their plate already, its something that I think has added value to my education and something that is important to continue to experience throughout education on all levels.

I am learning many important things that engineering just doesn't have a way to teach.

lenten

Well, my fellow inhabitants of the world, today is Ash Wednesday, which also marks the beginning of the season of fasting known as Lent.
What does this mean?  Well, I intend to find out.

I am not a member of the Catholic faith.  I was not raised around many catholics, and so most of what I learned about the catholic church and their beliefs came through the history books. And history books generally don't offer a pleasant view of religion, mostly because the events involving religion that made history too often did so because that religion was being exercised poorly.

That being said, if you are catholic or are well-versed in catholicism, and you see something here that has not been represented correctly, please let me know.  My intent here is to present the good that I see in this religious practice even though it is not of my own religion.

The concept of Lent has fascinated me over the past few days and and such, I did some research.  Lent is generally known as a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penitence.  It begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday immediately before Easter).  This period is actually longer than the prescribed 40-day fast and there is some discrepancy on how exactly to count out the days, but the fast represents the 40 days that Jesus Christ spent fasting in the wilderness immediately following His baptism and before appearing on the Mount of Transfiguration.  The bible scholar will note other significant instances involving 40-day or 40-year periods of time.

I believe the purposes of Lent--namely fasting, prayer, and penitence--do not have to be limited to religiously-observant catholics or even christians.  Anyone stands to receive personal improvement by following them.  To put them in a less religious light, they might be called sacrifice, meditation, and self-improvement.  Call it what you may, but I hold that the process and outcomes of observing Lent can be beneficial to anyone.

Fasting generally denotes abstaining from food and water for a period of time (as Christ did in the wilderness) but for mortal people who are not the literal Son of God, a 40-day food fast is not advised.  (Fasting from food involves many personal and health considerations that should be taken into account.) Instead, Lent is generally observed by the act of giving something up or making a sacrifice.  There are many levels of sacrifice to choose from, and popular choices go from giving up sweets and meat to giving up being angry or rude.  The purpose of fasting or sacrifice is to give up something valuable in exchange for something else, which is most often an intangible reward. Frequently, the reward of the sacrifice is found to be more valuable than the original sacrifice made.

The act of fasting or sacrifice is also intended to have a lasting change on the individual.  Many fasts, particularly those from food, end after a period of time and things return to the way they were previously--the person now released from their fast eats and carries on with their lives.  Many religions prescribe regular fasts from food for various amounts of time.  Because participants of the fast return to their normal food-eating routine after the fast, the purpose and effects of such a fast must be something other than physical.  This is where the other elements of Lent--prayer and penitence--come in.  As the body undergoes a more intense period of self-control where the mind and heart deny it of physical sustenance for a time, it opens up opportunities to focus more on the spiritual and mental and less on the physical.

Deeper changes happen as prayer and meditation provide channels for introspection, peace, relaxation, and a deeper connection with a whole (be that god, nature, or humanity) to come into one's life.  These connections influence fasting and sacrifice by giving inspiration and meaning to the fast, as well as a greater willpower and sense of ability to achieve the goals of the fast or to make it through the intended sacrifice. It can also help people become more aware of benefits of their fast or sacrifice that they may not have noticed previously.

Penitence is generally defined as the act of showing sorrow or regret for sins or trespasses, and in the Catholic faith this involves the confession of sins to a priest.  To me, penitence is the first step to becoming a better version of yourself.  Once you have recognized that you've made a mistake or can improve in some way, it logically follows that you should put forth an effort to change that.  One of the greatest parts of this human experience is the fact that we can change ourselves.

In 2015, Pope Francis II gave his address for Lent and proposed that people give up indifference, in turn becoming more aware of and caring for those around them.  This is one of my favorite views of sacrifice, where rather than seeing the process as a denial or limitation, it is seen as an additional focus or improvement that one undertakes.  It is still a sacrifice--of our time, our selfish thoughts, our comfort--but it becomes much more purposeful end enriching.  In addition to the spiritual aspects of fasting, such a sacrifice to improve oneself has a lasting effect on one's way of life. Indeed, 40 days is certainly enough time to build a new habit.

I would like to encourage everyone to make a sacrifice or change in their lives to become closer to what they envision the best version of themselves to be.  During Lent is a great opportunity to do so, but the most important thing is to do it when you're ready, rather than when the world expects you to.  I am observing Lent myself for the first time and, although I have fasted in various ways before, I am excited to see what I learn from the experience.

I will digress from the previous practices regarding the titles of the posts in two ways: first, by using a word that is not Latin, and second, by commenting directly on its meaning.  "Lent" is an abbreviation of the Middle English word "lenten", which was originally used to denote springtime.  I appreciate this because as the weather warms up it is clear to see that springtime is a season of rebirth and fresh starts.  Lenten sacrifice provides us just that.

ineptus

Get ready for a couple of posts all in a row about education.  That's what's on my mind right now because that's pretty much all I do!  When they say "full-time college student" they secretly meant "all-the-time college student". There is no 40-hour deal here.  And no paid overtime.

I've been playing this college game for a while now.  I am on the latter-half of things, now with fewer semesters between me and graduation than the semesters I have behind me.  I've been taking the real-deal classes now (no more prerequisites) and I started feeling like I really know what I'm doing here.  I know how to study and test and do homework and I am far enough into my program that I'm pretty familiar with whatever they will throw at me.

Or so I thought.

Turns out, this semester has been full of surprises.  And not the kinds of surprises I was even expecting. (...That's what makes them surprises.)

I cannot even count the number of times I have used the word "inept" or "ineptitude" to describe my new-found feelings for this term.

See, after thinking that I knew what to expect and I was far enough into things that everything would look like a more specialized extension of what I had studied last semester, I have been humbled exceedingly by the actual content of classes this term.

The first is from a course I am taking as part of my general education.  I like being well-rounded and well-read, so I like the idea of general education.  Narrowing choices down as to which upper-level psychology or philosophy or Spanish class I could take was a difficult choice.  This semester, I ended up in a sociology class, which I figured would be a welcome change from all the calculations and formulas I'm usually dealing with.  I had taken a demographic sociology course before and felt decent that I had retained the most important concepts, so this class couldn't be too surprising, while still allowing me to stretch my limits and expand a little into another subject.

Turns out there is no end to the number of sociological things that I do not know, or even have the slightest idea about.
So I get to read.

This phenomena of ineptitude could be expected when you take a class so unrelated to your chosen field of study.  But it has also started happening in my engineering classes.

Some of the concepts and material we learned as freshmen and then never spoke of again have miraculously resurfaced.  And they are in every single class.  After three or four years. Gaaahhhh.  The sudden realization that I in fact, do need to remember all of my past education is a little bit alarming because my brain has been trying not to be a pack rat and get rid of some of the unused stuff up there.
I really hope we kept it instead of donating it to Goodwill.

I thought I was so good at this.  I have never felt so inept at school before.

But this feeling of ineptitude, unqualification, and belittlement is not inherently a bad thing, albeit uncomfortable.  It's probably one of the biggest learning opportunities I'll have all year.  Not only to learn about the electronics I have forgotten and the ins and outs of sociology, but also to learn about myself and how to do things such as handle stress, read my eyes out, study way too many subjects at once, and hopefully figure out a more specific direction for what I am even planning to do with all of this.

Other aspects of myself that I hope to learn about include:

•  how I can actually make a difference in the world, 
• why specializing in something and knowing way too much about it (for example, the many failure modes of steel) is worthwhile, 
• what my priorities are, 
• what I can an cannot live without, and 
• how to simultaneously kick butt at school while not becoming a homework-doing robot, void of fun or emotion.

Something valuable happens when education belittles you and you realize just how big the world is.  Having your eyes opened to the vastness of how much you really don't know is a beautiful experience in a way.  The funny thing is that as we find more answers, those answers spark new questions.  As the expanse of knowledge we have--both as a collective community of humans, but also as individual minds--continues to grow, somehow the realm of what is beyond our knowledge, and therefore what is possible to be discovered and achieved, expands as well.