Self Esteem...

Greetings,

I seem to have this annoying habit of only posting about once every month or so lately. Sorry about that.

Winter quarter 2010 has officially started, and I have to say, the week and a half that I've spent in my new classes, Math 115 (a "mathematical reasoning" class that all Education majors have to take), English 271 (Intro to Poetry), and Education 201 (Intro to Education), has done wonders for my self-esteem. I attribute this adrenaline shot to my ego not only to the nature of the subject matter, but also to the people around me.

Last quarter, I was nowhere close to being the smartest kid in the class. I drowning in a sea of concepts that I understood but could not put into practice with any acceptable level of proficiency. I knew that most of the other students in my classes were struggling somewhat, but I doubt very seriously that they were working as hard as I was or seeing results as flaccid as mine were. At the very least I knew that most of the other students were able to finish the tests, while I consistently lost 10-20 points on tests due to lack of time.

This quarter I feel like I have super powers. I went into my math class the first day, and instead of looking at systems of equations, matrices, rational functions, or anything that daunting, I was tasked with calculating simple interest. My heart radiated joy!! Romantic visions of a 4.0 GPA came back to me like a lover lost at sea now returned from an assumed watery grave. Then came English. Many of the poems in our text are poems I've already studied and I was told that the grading system for the class would be based on attendance, active participation in class discussion, and two 1000 word essays. It was as if I could already feel the warm embrace of the 4.0. My Intro to Education class meets once a week, and appears to be similar to the English class. A few short papers, class discussions, and some sort of test - not to mention that the professor of the class used to be a vice principle at my high school.

Now, all of this subject matter is obviously exponentially easier than trying to calculate the change in temperature for a reaction between KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) and... whatever it happens to be reacting with, but as I mentioned earlier, the subject matter isn't the only thing that's got me feeling great about being me. The other part of the equation is some of the people in these classes. Sometimes it's easy to forget that I am 10 t0 15 years older than most of the other people around me, but I must say that when one is engaged in an English class in which the deeper issues of life are discussed, this difference in age can be as vast as the Pacific Ocean. The comments that come up during that class are just entertaining, and I think to myself "If this is what the discussions are like in a college level lit class, I can't wait to start leading discussions as a high school teacher!" My biggest challenge in this class is trying to stop myself from snickering when some of these people talk.

The math class is really no different, ether. I sit a couple of seats away from a kid who is a freshman in the Army ROTC program. Being a former enlisted man, I tend to get really annoyed with him because he won't shut up about the "hardships" he has to endure at the hands of the Army. Just yesterday, he was going on about having to take a PT test that morning and how he only did 27 push-ups, 42 sit-ups, and ran his mile-and-a-half in 17:49. He further explained that his captain was on his case about how he failed the test and that he thought it exceedingly unfair that the Army expected such lofty performances from people who were fresh out of high school. Here is a list of everything I find wrong with his diatribe:

1. I weigh AT LEAST 50 lbs more than the minimum acceptable weight for my age/height for the US Air Force, and I can do more push ups and sit ups than this skinny little bastard can. Get over it.
2. The Army's expectations are not that lofty. The fact is, when he gets deployed to the Middle East (and he WILL get deployed) he is going to have to perform his mission in 100+ degree heat wearing a full Battle Dress Uniform, Kevlar, a ruck sack that weighs at least 50 lbs, and possibly a heavily insulated chemical warfare suit complete with a gas mask. Other people's lives will depend on his ability to accomplish that mission. Expecting him to do at least 45 push ups, 60 sit ups, and run 1 1/2 miles in under 16:30 is NOT unreasonable.
3. Further compounding his whining over the PT test is the history of other dialogue he is responsible for thus far this quarter, which includes all types of bravado about fighting and being tough and beating people up who mess with him. 27 push ups? Kid, I would whoop your ass.
4. When I was in tech school for the Air Force, we saw the ROTC kids doing their "PT" every day. It consisted of playing soccer and frisbee. Seriously. Then today, I heard this kid talk about getting hit in the face while playing dodgeball (presumably with his squadron) this morning. Again - get over it.

But I digress. The point is, it is becoming exceedingly difficult to keep my ego in check when exposed to the likes of these. I think I'll be able to manage, though. And if not, then please e-mail me with an advanced chemistry or physics problem so I can be reminded of my proper place.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully now that I'm not going to be bogged down with ridiculous amounts of homework, I'll be able to post more often.

I am the Reverend Humpy and I have approved this message.