In high school I often found myself asking myself, usually in unison with many of my peers, why am I learning this? It was never made clear to me for which instance in my life I would need to know how many neutrons argon has, or what the square root of i is. I will say the the subject I found to be the most irrelevant and obsolete in high school had come to my aide more than I would have imagined. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the (minimal) Latin I picked up in high school and how it has helped me with English and now, Spanish. Regardless, in high school, sitting there staring at the clock wondering why it could possibly matter that agricola, agricolae is actually a masculine noun, I could have been much more proficient knowing exactly how this subject would be useful in life.
In college its a little different. The first day my political science professor told us he knew that most of us would be bored by his (obligatory) class on the European Union. Of course I think most people find the class absolutely fascinating since the professor is so dynamic and charismatic. The material is interesting too because we see it everyday actually living in Europe. Everyday I learn something I see it later that day, or it comes up in the news. For example, Spain joined the EU in 1986, I look at my Abono (my metro pass) and the Metro in Spain was built the same year. Coincidence? I think not... but thats actually besides the point. The point is that he told us his goal in teaching us about the European Union. He told us a little anecdote about his first day in a college lecture class. His teacher, a man he greatly admired, posed a question he expected no one to know- and sure enough the room was silent. But, he timidly rose his hand and offered an answer. He turned out to be right and won the professors reciprocated respect and admiration. He described the feeling with the smile of a seven year old boy taking over his face and his passion communicated the point as well as his words. He explained that he is teaching us X so that someday we will have that feeling. Some far away day, maybe in Madrid, we’ll remember that the European Parliament is the only institution directly elected when we overhear a conversation in a bar. Of course the Spaniard or Frenchmen who are discussing it will assume we’re Americans, completely ignorant of European politics. But, at the last moment, we’ll offer our knowledge, and feel proud that we knew something even a European citizen didn’t. Who’s the ignorant American now? He added that maybe we’ll even impress someone enough to buy us a drink.
I guess its really a combination of being in Europe and having that explained to me, but the simple knowledge of why I’m learning what I’m learning (and its not just for bar conversations), has made me much more intrigued in my subjects. Having a passionate professor who really cares not only about what he is teaching, but also about the success of his students and our interest in the material, is exceptionally catalyzing for engaged learning.
My only problem is that I got these teachers first term of my freshman year and now every teacher I have from here will have a hard time meeting the standard. In other words they’ve set the bar high, but this is a trivial concern.
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