On Fri, 9 Apr 2004 07:10:32 -0600, "Jeff Crowell"
wrote:

Ed Rasimus wrote:

If I leave the
school, there won't be any online Political Science classes in the
fall.

Ah well. Undoubtedly the optimism-curing effects are
much greater in class than over the wires. That's really
what I wanted to see. I would pay lots to attend a class
or two with my elder son, who is now a sophomore (in
more ways than one, I sometimes think). Odd points of
view that boy has, and all joking aside, I dunno where he
got 'em... still, I am definitely an optimist at heart. Versus
the wife, who is, as she says, "a realist."

As a student in the class, it is not as easy to have your optimism
shattered, since you don't see the literary efforts (or lack thereof)
from your classmates. Online, you also don't get as much of the impact
of blank stares that greet such overhead questions as "does anyone
here read Hemingway"" or, has anyone seen the movie Patton, Dr.
Strangelove, The Last Emperor, Seven Days in May.....

Probably my lowest expectations were unmet the time, on Nov. 11th, I
asked the class what was significant about the day. Few knew, until
after prompting that it was some kind of holiday, one student
remembered it was Veteran's Day. When asked if they had ever heard it
called Armistice Day, none had. Asked why it was 11/11, they didn't
know that the armistice to end the "War to End All Wars" had been
signed at 11:00 AM on 11/11. When asked which war that was, they
guessed Vietnam, Korea and the Civil War.....all high-school grads and
all enrolled in college! Amazing, isn't it?

There are always bright spots, of course.

Your wife probably went to the same school as mine, who regularly
quotes a professor who liked to say to his idealistic under-grads,
"it's not right, but it's real!"



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8