okay, a link

[ritaxis]

Last night, my beloved daughter was ranting about how she can't do the kind of "bullshit" they want her to do in her history/literature Classic Mythology class -- that is, interpret Greek vases and writings -- because it's all made up and bullshit and it's not like math! How the hell did I raise two kids who say crap like this? I'm an anthropologist by training, damn it! And I did lots of art and literature interpretation in my time!

Anyway, this morning she sent me this link (though, dear, you must have hand typed the link, because I had to correct it to get there). It's a fun link.

I'm trying to figure out how to explain explication and interpretation -- she still has three more gen ed classes of this type to get through after this in order to graduate.

It's not bullshit, except when it is, for starters. When it is bullshit, it's bullshit for the same reason that bullshit science is bullshit: bad faith manipulation of the source material. Leaving out important investigative steps that are there to safeguard the honesty of the process. That kind iof thing.

There is more fuzziness to humanities, but there is fuzziness to all interpretations of observations. The greater fuzziness in humanities is partly due to the fact that there is fuzziness in the boundaries between object, subject, medium, information, method and reporting. But you know what else is fuzzy? The boundary between humanities and science, and most certainly the boundary between humanities thinking and science thinking. Don't give me that "two cultures" crap. For one thing, the two cultures crap irritates me because it marginalizes me personally yet afuckinggain. I'm in the margin for everything else, and it gets old.

Okay, now I have to go make lunch.

On another front: I did get to the touchscreen/ballot scanner class last night, though late, because if you have to go to something at the Emeline county buildings complex and you don't have really precise directions you have to give up and go home and get the really precise directions. I did find out there is a back way out of the complex, besides the really creepy narrow route under Highway One: it's the really creepy frontage road that follows Highway Seventeen and eventually takes you to one of those cult ghost towns. And there's no place to turn around in the dark till you get to the entrance ramp to Highway Seventeen.

However, I am pleased to announce that our federally-mandated electronic voting machines are state-mandated to have nearly ungameable paper trails, and have other honesty-checks built into every step of the way. They're also not connected by ethernet or whatever, so they can't be gamed from outside in real time.

When I first moved to this county, election fraud was a way of life. Ballot boxes would disappear for hours. Precincts would be counted with more Republican votes than there were voters. All that kind of stuff. Yes, in small stakes Santa Cruz county. Then there came the University and the Progressive Revolution -- I was a pollwatcher long before I was an election clerk.

So, anyway, no rain today. And forty-three pounds for sure, it's held for several days.

Comments

[blackoakdreams.livejournal.com]

I call foul. Science is made up too. Theorems are, by definition, ways of coming of with the most correct answer most often, not immutable laws. They have a tendency to change if you don't keep your eye on them at all times. What was correct fifty, thirty, hell, ten years ago is not necessarily what the scientific community considers given today.

Also, my engineering friends took the same introduction level literature courses as I did. That doesn't mean they took the same courses I did. The introduction classes made them foam at the mouth enough, they'd have been spitting teeth if they had to perform the level of analysis and research I reached. Which is something I find silly, since, as you say, they did the same thing in some of their classes.

Just breath deep Lucy, and think about why she is saying what she is saying. It's not like Math. Think about that like an Anthropologist. Math appeals to certain personality types, not least because of its (apparent) certainty, but also because there is a certain amount of democratic approachability to it. In theory, anyone can learn it. Math and Science work the same if you are Bill Gates or a child starving to death in Africa. Given tools and enough time for observation, anyone can "reinvent the wheel," that is, teach themselves every aspect of Modern Science. You don't need anyone to interpret it for you, it is all out there just waiting to be found by anyone with the aptitude. The Humanities, on the other hand, are entirely dependent on interpretation and knowledge that you simply have to be educated about. Plato is well and truly dead; there is now way to find out what he said except by the translations and interpretations that have survived down to today.

Try reasoning with her with that in mind. She didn't run out and check every statement made by her physics professor, did she? No, she took his word for it, comforted by the knowledge that if she wanted to check it, she could. Tell her that Humanities works the same way, except that instead of running a lab, cross-checking the professor involves delving through peer-reviewed and edited publications, which her library almost certainly (especially if she goes to a research university, like on of the UCs) has available. An explication? Pff. I wrote a six page paper once explicating four words. The important thing to keep in mind is that every viewpoint is valid to a certain degree, and if she can back up her statements with research, she'll be fine. If her TA insists that the professor's words are the one true way, go over the TA's head to the professor. I've never met a University teacher yet that would object to talking with a student who comes armed with a bibliography. They have to keep looking to their next publication, and someone that aids them in their research will get brownie points.

If all else fails, remind her that education is the process by which cultural values are transferred, and it is her turn to be educated.