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Comments on: Semi-electives: a university paradox https://www.didyoulearnanything.net/blog/2012/01/10/semi-electives-a-university-paradox/ An archived blog about education, language, peace, and other fine things Mon, 26 Jun 2023 19:09:17 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 By: Michael https://www.didyoulearnanything.net/blog/2012/01/10/semi-electives-a-university-paradox/#comment-1500 Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:56:45 +0000 http://www.didyoulearnanything.net/?p=1889#comment-1500 I totally agree, as I noted in the footnote – it’s entirely possible that the very things I see as chores right now could end up being of central importance later on. The point is that when you’re forced to do such things and have neither interest in them nor expectation of using them later, it’s hard not to think of them as chores.

I’ll read the New Yorker piece this evening, thanks.

]]> By: Shoshana London Sappir https://www.didyoulearnanything.net/blog/2012/01/10/semi-electives-a-university-paradox/#comment-1499 Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:48:52 +0000 http://www.didyoulearnanything.net/?p=1889#comment-1499 Re your comment “I have no reason to expect to ever use it again,” see Steve Jobs’s famous story about calligraphy:
“Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

“NONE OF THIS HAD EVEN A HOPE OF ANY PRACTICAL APPLICATION IN MY LIFE (caps mine, SLS). But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.” I realize there’s a difference between dropping in on an interesting course you don’t think is practical, and being forced to take a course you are neither interested in nor think is practical.
And on the purpose of a college education, I recommend the following recent New Yorker piece on the subject: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/06/06/110606crat_atlarge_menand

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