blog.shimer

Mahlified!

Recently (less recent then when I intended to write this blog!), our Quality of Life Commitee  procured us students a number of tickets to the Civic Orchestra. Thank you QLC! On the bill, Mahler’s 7^th. My comrades and I arrived early; our fearless (alternately read as shameless) leader cut swaths through casual concert goers to find us the best possible seating. To his credit they were fantastic, dead center on the terrace just above and behind the orchestra. Dutiful documenter of life and times that I am, I attempted to take a few photos. This met with the extreme disapproval of an usher, and the utter mortification of our fearless leader. Alas, all I came away with were the meager shots offered here. Never mind, the music soon began!

 

I have been to many musical events, but nothing quite like this. I freely admit that I’m not entirely comfortable with Mahler. I find his sudden shifts and turns a little schizophrenic, and the manner in which he layers bombastic major passages over eerie minor bits can be disconcerting. It’s as if he wants to tell us something dark and tragic and profound and delightful all in the same breath, like an over-eager child trying to recount the day’s terrors and triumphs in one confused monologue. But in a way this was the perfect music to watch at such close range. Our seats allowed us to hear each section in proximity to the others, opening up the sense of space in the music, and adding quite a bit of dimension to the different instrumental voices as they bounced back and forth. They’d join together in emotional swells, then scatter apart again to dance around each other in exotic harmonies (and the occasional dissonances).

 

What a wonderful picture of the world this was! A brief moment in the fourth captured it perfectly. It only lasted a few seconds: the first violinist broke out solo, rising above the rest of the orchestra in an unrestrained, ecstatic outburst, and then fell back in with the rest of the orchestra. Here was a unity that never engulfed the individual, but allowed it its own path. And still, this path was a part of the whole. Sublime.

 

After the concert we went for dessert, only to find that all the likely spots in the loop close early. You take your joys where you can get them. Ah, a haiku:

           The Conductor:

          Towering above, he affects that

          Of a man out chasing his hat.

I'm back!

Hey everyone. I'm back to posting on this thing after a brief falling out. We're still dealing with Chicago's frigid winter, but, at least it's mixed with days that reach 45 degrees, which is incredible. I never in my life thought I'd consider 45 degrees to be warm. Ah well.

School is back in action for the spring semester and we recently had our Montagine competition! The highlight of the school year, because, we get to meet all the new students and tell them that Shimer...is Hogwarts. Can you say awesome?

I certainly can. 

My classes are great! I am on my last 1/2 level course, Integrative Studies 2, and I have the pleasure of taking it with a lot of the newer students. Its a refreshing change of pace from spending my first 2 years sharing classes with all the same people. For any prospectives reading this: IS2 has *some things* to do with math but it is not the kind of course to discourage those who fear math. It's safe. Tread happily.

Montaigne Scholarship

    Yesterday was Valentine's Day. More importantly, to those looking for a scholarship, it was the second day of the Fourth Annual Montaigne Weekend. Forty prospective students came from all over the States to compete for the Montaigne Scholarship. Was the competition intense? Of course. Was it fun? Absolutely. Will four people come out of it with a major scholarship to Shimer College? Yes!
    All they had to do, other then find their way to Chicago, was read an essay by Michel de Montaigne before arriving. Once here they wrote an essay and participated in a discussion on the text. The judges will now decide who gets the scholarship and everyone is notified around March 1.
    Other than the competition, the students (and their parents) got to take a tour of our campus, eat lunch in our cafeteria and scope out the dorm rooms. Current students (including Naomi Neal of my last post, who is one of last year's Montaigne winners) answered questions and chatted with the prospies throughout the two days.
    To the above right is a picture of me one year ago yesterday at my own Montaigne competition. It's a horrible picture, but it brings back the exciting feeling I had the first time I set foot on this campus. I can only hope the students over the weekend felt the same way. Below are pictures of Sunday's Montaigne group. Please forgive/excuse the back-of-the-head phenomena that is my picture taking skill.
    To the right is Jack Dragu from California. He's a senior in high school and really loves the idea of a place where you can read all of the time and then talk about what you read. That's probably one of the things that sold me right off the bat as well.
   

 

     Above are two of the tables in the cafeteria of the Shimer group. On the far table both of the Admission staff are present as well as Aaron Garland who handles a lot of the Alumni stuff at our school as well as the school website.
    To the left is Amy Pritts. She's relatively new to our school, our new Admissions Director. She spoke with a lot of the parents and hopefuls, explaining a lot of the inner workings of our school and the application process.
    Below is first-year Ben Bornstein (left) eating and chatting with prospective Christian.

      To the right is facilitator Barbara Stone. "Facilitator" is the correct term for the teachers at our school because, normally, they do not lecture or profess--they facilitate discussions in the classroom, make sure we're moving in the right direction and grade/help us with our papers.
    Below  the group heading into the dorms. This year, Shimer students have three floors of Gunsalaus Hall. This group was shown one of the sample rooms on the first floor, a one-bedroom apartment. All of our dorms, no matter the size, come with their own bathroom and kitchen.
    There are no co-ed rooms, but the floors are mixed. My neighbors are boys.

Playing: Oblivion (of the Shivering Isles variety)
Classes Today: Natural Sciences 2 (Darwin), Social Sciences 2 (Machiavelli), Humanities 2 (Homer)

Shimer Interview - Naomi Neal

Below is an interview with first-year student, nineteen-year-old Naomi Neal.

Hometown: Pacifica, California (a suburb of San Francisco)

Major: Undecided (probably Natural Sciences)

How did you decide to come to Shimer? When I started researching colleges, I quickly became disillusioned with mainstream higher education. I felt that much of my high school experience amounted to busywork and mindless memorization, and the thought of going to college to do more of the same, to sit in lecture classes and read textbooks and accrue points for my resume, was terribly depressing. For a while, I considered forgoing college altogether; I didn't feel that the experience would satisfy my intellectual curiosity. When I discovered the Great Books program, I was hooked. What better way to learn how to think and live in society than to read the most influential works of Western civilization, and what better way to understand them than through in-depth discussion with other students who, like myself, were interested in learning and responding, and not just in fulfilling a requirement? Having finally found a place where I could actually get an education, I knew that any ordinary school was out of the question.

Favorite memories since coming to Shimer: My favorite classroom memory so far is the day that facilitator Jim Donovan's Natural Sciences 2 class invaded my Natural Sciences 1 class, pretending to be apes--naturally, we were compelled to launch a periodic table-themed counter-attack. My favorite memories as a member of the small, warm community include late-night walks, home-cooked meals, and trips to the Art Institute.

 
Favorite class so far and why: My favorite class so far was Natural Sciences 1, which is a physics class concerned with all sorts of groovy subjects like matter, heat, energy, and such. I always hated science classes in high school, but Nat Sci 1 made me think about the physical world around me as something mysterious and wonderful. I appreciate the way that the curriculum includes pre-Socratic Greeks and other writers who conceived of the phenomena we can observe in totally different ways from our own--writers who believed that all things were made of water, or that heat was a physical substance. These texts force you to examine your own preconceptions about the universe and what it is--who's to say that our ideas are better than theirs? What is it about humankind that makes us want to discover truth? In Nat Sci 1, I realized for the first time how philosophical and even spiritual science can be.

 
Most read/favorite book and why: This question is universally despised by Shimer students, who can't conceive of limiting their love of books to just one title. My standard answer, though I may gnash my teeth at the thought of all the beautiful and beloved books I'm neglecting, is Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men. Mr. Penn Warren was, in my opinion (and in that of the Nobel and Pulitzer committees, as well as whoever it is that designates the U.S. Poet Laureate) one of the best American writers, ever. All The King's Men is a complex novel about politics, morality, Louisiana during the Great Depression, and redemption--but mostly, it's the beauty of the language that makes the book the masterpiece it is: "...the air so still it aches like the place where the tooth was on the morning after you've been to the dentist or aches like your heart in the bosom when you stand on the street corner waiting for the light to change and happen to recollect how things once were and how they might have been yet if what had happened had not happened."

Musical Snobbery

     There is an interesting phenomena that occurs in the Shimer community, they all seem to know these obscure bands I've never heard before. Since the beginning of the school year, I've been introduced to singers and bands like Joanna Newsom, Melt Banana, and The Books. While I love Newsom now, I'm not so sure about these hundreds of other bands that have somehow escaped my attention.
     Ok, to be honest, I do not have great taste in music. In fact, almost everyone here feels pained listening to my playlists. That does raise the question my roommate asked though, how do you decide what bad music is? Well, I'll tell you how I know that my listening tastes are lacking; no one else lets me pick the music. I continue to listen to my melodies on iTunes and hope one day to be blessed with a musical ear like others, but honestly I don't understand the problem with my music.
I mean, I listen to what has been big on my radio stations back home for a while now. My favorite bands have been Cake and Metallica for as long as I can remember. I'm just a product of my environment. So, do I need to break out of this? Do I need to acquire what my classmates call "taste"? I just don't know.
     My roommate does play a good amount of music I've never heard before, and I do enjoy most of it, so maybe it is time I put away the bands I've liked since middle school (but not all of them and Cake is definitely staying or the deal's off) and pick up some of this other music.
     I don't think I'm ever going to be a connoisseur like many Shimerians, but maybe I'll at least be able to follow along when they start discussing music.

Community Tuesday - Kisa pou nou fe?

     I feel as if this is almost a continuation of yesterday's post as this week's Community Tuesday was also about the recent devastation in Haiti and how anyone can help out. This talk was led by Maxandre Bien-Aime, founder of the Institution Mixte Nao Community School. It was entitled, "Kisa pou nou fe?" which translates from Creole to "What must we do?".
     Already Shimer had prepared to help IMN out, hosting a bake sale at yesterday's assembly and raising $115. The Quality of Life Committee tripled this amount by donating $230. Our total donation of $345 is enough to sponsor a teacher in Haiti for three months or sponsor immediate assistance for thirteen Haitian children.
     Maxandre spoke about the dire need of the Haitian children and how he began working with them.
From the IMN pamphlet:
"Maxandre founded IMN, a kindergarten/primary school, with his niece Naomi, in 2002. The focus, when founded, was to permit children in Darbonne, Leogane, not only to read and write, but to develop a vision of themselves and their world. IMN embraces a vision different from other schools in the community.
"At the time of the recent earthquake, the school had grown to house Kindergarden through 5th grade....
"Due to countless hurricanes which wrecked havoc on Haiti the past couple of years, the construction costs had more than tripled in the past year...."
     Maxandre informed us that Haiti Partners has agreed to act as fiscal partners for IMN as they begin to rebuild. To donate, people can visit: www.haitipartners.org and mention IMN in the comment box.
     Also, to keep track of Maxandre and the IMN as it rebuilds, visit: www.kids4good.org

Playing: ME2
Classes Today: None

Also: I finished my paper on poetry for Hum 2. The poem I picked is "New Rule" by Anne Carson.

Last Week/MWA

     It's been almost a week since my last post. I was getting so used to it being a part of my week-daily routine and then my computer went on the fritz. I suppose I could have written my posts in Shimer's computer lab (which, although small, is quite nice), but to write I need my own computer, my own space.

     Last Week's thoughts (condensed):

The Wordiness of Worddom

     Being around words all day can make a person a little flustered. There are just so many to be remembered, thought about, argued over. Pronunciation can get a little confusing when people are from all over these states (and from around the world).
     So, making up words just adds to the confusion.
     As a general rule, certain words, that already have meanings, should not be re-defined. My roommate really hates it when I say 'triangulate' and mean 'a meeting between three people, thus making a triangle'. Seeing as that is not even close to the correct definition, I suppose I can understand her annoyance when I exercise my creative linguistic license.
     However, there are times in class when a well made-up word can really capture the essence of what needs to be said. Like when a certain Shimer student, when speaking of an omelette, says, "The omeletteness of the omelette is what makes it pure." Or, "the chairyness of the chair makes it seem more red."
     We all understand what he means when he says it, he (usually) follows the rules of English grammar. Sometimes it is actually helpful in class because once in a while there really is no one word that captures the meaning of what we are discussing.

Haiti

     The last Community Tuesday we had featured Erik Badger, an alum, who spoke about Haiti. He, along with Professor Steve Werlin, have been working down in Haiti for a while now and are especially busy since the recent devastating earthquake.
     He told us about all of the help Haiti could use right now, not just donations but volunteer work as well. He also filled us in on the current political situation and connected us (via Skype) with Steve Werlin who is still in Haiti.
     To read Steve Werlin's statement about the aftermath of the earthquake go to: http://alumni.shimer.edu/s/1028/index.aspx?sid=1028&gid=1&pgid=252&cid=1154&ecid=1154&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=772

Midwest Worker's Association

     Many Shimer students volunteer with the Midwest Worker's Association (MWA) on a weekly basis. "The Midwest Worker's Association's purpose is to provide a wide range of social and health survive-and-get-on-your-feet services and referrals to organize advocacy of working families not covered by traditional labor laws and organizations" (from Loyola University's Website).

     Shimerians help out by distributing food donations, getting in contact with other organizations that can help the people of Chicago and collecting supplies like food.
     People are encouraged to help out in any way they can, like donating clothing or canned goods or participating in drives like the Super Bowl Sunday Tamale Benefit. Students and other volunteers worked many hours to make vegetarian and meat tamales and then sold them around the community to raise money for the people in need of help in Chicago.
     Currently, many people in the dorms here are planning on donating clothing to the MWA to be distributed throughout Chicago.

Playing: Still Mass Effect 2
Classes Today: Nat Sci 2, Soc Sci 2 and Hum 2

The Shimer College Assembly

Yesterday afternoon, the Shimer College Assembly met for the first of its two regularly scheduled meetings in the semester. If you've never been to an Assembly, picture this: a wide section of the community (students, faculty, staff, alumni, and trustees) sitting in a circle (as best is possible in a rectangular room) deliberating and discussing the college's current and future state.

Trustee Mary-Lou Kennedy stands to debate a point at the Nov. 15, 2009 Assembly.

The Assembly represents the entire community of Shimer College. It is run according to democratic rules set down in the Assembly Constitution, presided over by the Speaker (currently faculty Albert Fernandez) and charged with the task of Shimer's moral guardianship.

From the Preamble of the Constitution: "The Assembly governs by virtue of the moral suasion established by communal deliberation. The Assembly is a democratic legislature; it defines and protects the basic moral law or essential ethos of the College. The form and major responsibilities of the Assembly are symbolic of the Shimer College commitment to the pursuit of truth and intellectual honesty. The Assembly thus serves to nurture the spirit of true dialogue as well as the habits of public responsibility."

As such, the conversational habits and ideas we read about for class that have to do with governance (among other things) are set into action at the Assembly. Among its normal functions, the Assembly delegates certain tasks that help to run the College to its committees, which in turn communicate with the staff and Board of Trustees. These include the Budget Committee, the Admission Committee, the Administrative Committee, the Academic Planning Committee, and the Quality of Life Committee, among others. In each committee there is representation from several of the constituencies of Shimer's internal community: faculty, administrators, weekday students, and weekend students. Each Committee's powers are laid out in the Constitution, and Committees are reelected every year.

Looking towards the Shimer banner and the seat of the Speaker of the Assembly (center at table), the Parliamentarian (David Shiner, left at table) and the Secretary (myself, right at table).

Each member of the Assembly has one vote, all votes equal. Matters to be voted on may include committee elections, motions, resolutions, amendments or changes to the Constitution, or statements made by the Assembly as a whole. In yesterday's Assembly, among other things, the agenda included examination and discussion of Shimer's mission statement. The debate/discussion was lively and lengthy, and the current mission statement, along with other suggestions submitted by the community via a self-study group appointed last year, were carefully considered. While the democratic process is frequently not quick, it is thorough.

Voting on an agenda item.

The Assembly is a vital part of Shimer's life and governance today. While it did not always exist at Shimer (it was formed shortly before Shimer's move to Waukegan in the late 1970s), it has provided the community with a voice and say in how the college runs, as well as given students a chance to put what they learn into action. It embodies the college's current mission statement of "education for active citizenship," and gives the opportunity to Shimer to live its motto: "To serve, rather than to be served."

Common Bonds

     Today was not the greatest day of my life, it actually started out as a remarkably unpleasant day. The ride back from the dermatologist (on the brown line, which I rarely ride) changed that though.
     I got on the train, sat down and opened up my Nicomachean Ethics (more Aristotle, but for Social Sciences 2 this time) to where I had left off. Across the aisle from me I saw a very elderly man sit down next to a girl probably around my age. She was texting and didn't notice at first, but when she looked up there was recognition in her eyes. "Lawrence," she squealed. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in weeks."
     Their conversation continued a while and as absorbed as I was in Aristotle's confident claims, I couldn't help but overhear. They were talking about day-to-day things, the mayor, the weather, but they were also talking about what shelter he was staying at now, where her dad was living after the divorce, who she had just been dumped by.
     During this discussion I was left a little confused, how did these people meet each other? I  gathered that he had gone to school in Africa until he was twenty-one, when he moved here and began helping to engineer boats. She was going to school for fashion design. He talked about selling his artwork up and down Michigan Avenue, hoping to save up enough to get a place of his own. She was wearing Chanel sunglasses and carrying a Prada bag.
     Then, it happened. "Did you watch those DVDs I gave you?" He asked.
     "Yea, and you're so right! Captain Kirk is so much better than the others guys."
     Star Trek. That was their common bond. Generations between them, opposite ends of the economic scale, but they both loved Star Trek.
     Now, I must say, I do love me some Trek time, but somehow it surprised me that these two people did. It's such a personal thing for me, I forget other people enjoy it as well.
     I suppose that's how I felt about reading before I came to Shimer too. I was the only one of my friends who read as if to quench a dying thirst for words. Now I'm surrounded by people with that same desire, the same need for refreshing knowledge.

Interesting fact: The phrase, "Eat, drink, and be merry, since the other things are not with this snap of the fingers" is attributed to Assyrrian king Sardanapalus.

Photo: First year Aaron Christman in a Star Trek captain's shirt.
Playing: More Mass Effect 2!
Classes Today: none

It’s pretty obvious really, humanity as a whole loves to talk. Call us a “social animal” or a “species being” or what not, there’s something essentially human in the way we communicate, quite probably built right into our genetics. We are incredibly adept at projecting our thoughts, needs, and desires into the world around us. So a place like Shimer, where we focus so heavily on education through dialogue, seems well suited to developing our human minds (and while I vehemently disagree with the idea that any one of us has to earn our humanity, I do think we need to cultivate it). In and out of class we are forced to hone, refine, and focus our thoughts. But I wonder if it’s so simple.

While talking seems so intuitive, listening is perhaps less so. It’s just so much harder now days; the hum of the world has grown into a roar. Technology has saturated us with media, and media has overwhelmed us with input. Historians like McNeill and Hodgson use the term ecumene (the “known world”) to describe the relative scale at which societies and cultures interacted with each other. In a way, we each have our own personal ecumene, which expands more and more as we grow: family, grade school, high school, etc. In the media age, our ecumenes have exploded: voices (existences really) from around the globe constantly barrage us on tv, computers, telephones, even cereal boxes. And these now comprise our much wider “known world.” Durkheim would doubtless blame all manner of social ills on the phenomenon; I’ll only go so far as to say our balance of intake to output has grown precarious. As poet/punker Dick Lucas put it, “They used to wrap chips in newspapers, now they microwave fast food.” More and more it looks like whole grains are the way to go.

So I find that more than learning how to speak well, I’ve learned quite a bit about active listening. Think about it: you’re in a class with 9 other people. Yes, you express your own opinions, but only about a tenth of the time. The other 90% is spent listening to 9 other sets of ideas and opinions, interpreting and following different perspectives and interpretations. It’s fairly intense. And if it’s demanding it’s no less rewarding; that moment when a classmate gives you the words to bring your own hazy picture into focus is sublime. But more than this, you find that somehow you’ve become a more critical listener. I find it almost humorous watching television commercials or media punditry now, where all the manipulation and misdirection are laid bare. I’m reminded of Oliver Sack’s story of a ward of aphasia patients laughing uproariously at a former US president's speech.

In our day we need a greater filter for the information we’re bombarded with, if only to resist high-volume Jack Lalanne Juicer sales pitches and seedy political ads. But there’s something more in this dynamic process of speaking and listening, something that goes beyond communication. Last week in class, we discussed a poem by Lavinia Greenlaw, entitled “A World Where News Travelled Slowly.” The last stanza begins:

 

Now words are faster, smaller, harder,

…we’re almost speaking in each other’s arms.

Coded and squeezed, what chance has my voice

To reach your voice unaltered and to leave no trace?

 

What an odd sentiment in our age of global communication. Why would anyone want their voice to reach another’s altered? May be something to consider next time your choosing a long distance plan.