College Dreams

"His face wearing the fixity of a thoughtful child's who has felt the pricks of life somewhat before his time" (11).



Within the first few pages of Jude I related to his feeling of uselessness after his aunt explains that "I am obliged to let him earn any penny he can," (12) because I have been mooching off my parents for twenty years. I know that part of a parents job is to take care of their offspring whether it be financially, physically or emotionally but I am ready to repay them for the decades they have spoiled me. I also relate to Jude with his passion for reading, and once, in high school when one of my teachers switched to a private school, I begged my parents to send me there. My college dream is to take advantage of what I have been given while learning everything I can about everything.

Also, like Jude, I take pity on animals. While I don't have any current pets, my heart breaks when I see a stray cat/dog or a bird who didn't get the crumbs in time. "'Poor little dears!' said Jude alound. 'You shall have some dinner--you shall. There is enough for all of us...Eat, then, my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!'" (14). I can't help but give money to a homeless person when they are traveling with a dog.


"Christminster is out across there, by that clump. You can see it--at least you can on a clear day. Ah, no, you can't now" (18). Somedays I feel like I am so close to achieving my college dreams, like they are right in front of me and all I have to do is follow the path that I can clearly see. Others, I feel completely lost, my mind foggy and dreams faded and invisible to me. Jude happens to climb the roof on his way to Christminster yet he chose a day that was a rare cloudy one, in which his sight remained unseen. (Could this be foreshadowing?)


During my last few weeks at high school, I felt just as Jude did in the fact that I was ready to leave Dallas and head to Austin. I felt embarrassed that I seemed to hate my hometown so much and was ready for a change, to leave everything behind and begin my college career. "He was getting so romantically attached to Christminster that, like a young lover alluding to his mistress, he felt bashful at mentioning its name again," (21). I would get practically giddy when people asked where I was going to college, and would talk about how cool Austin was basically like I was talking about a boyfriend.
My absolute favorite part is at the end of 1-3 when Jude talks about Christminster. I think it is a poem that can be duly used to describe Austin, its' inhabitants, and its culture.
"It is a city of light
The tree of knowledge grows there
It is a place that teachers of men spring from and go to
It is what you may call a castle, manned by scholarship and religion
I would just suit me" (23).


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My focus was on Book 1, and I especially love the last part because of its soap-opera theme. Arabella--what a biotch, doing what sadly, lots of crazy women do in love: Fakes a pregnancy to get a marriage then admits it was a lie afterward. This is definitely no one of my college dreams--tricking someone into marrying me. I hope to eventually marry, but what is the hurry. YOU ARE ONLY A KID ONCE. PLAY AND DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TO SERIOUSLY!

Trying to make my conservative parents love their little liberal...

Mom? Dad? Why don't you love me? I swear I'm not socially awkward and weird...




Pertaining to persons of superior social station...who so is vertuous [sic]...gentle, curteous [sic]...a soft meeke [sic] patient, humble tranquill [sic] spirit (318B)." I am the only daughter of four who chose an education in liberal arts rather than communication or business. I am also the least favorite daughter. You should note in the picture below that I am not in it. Those are my other three sisters and my mother...Ouch





But, from the reading I have built a strong case against the favoritism of my parents after reading these articles. They think that because I am not in business or some type of media major that I am wasting my time. Little do they know that I will graduate with a general knowledge of EVERYTHING. Science-check, government/economics- check, arts/humanities-check, business-check, readin'/writin'/'rithmetic-check. Newman says that "Liberal- freedom from narrowness of mind...all branched of knowledge are connected together; therefore, to give undue prominence to one is to be unjust to another." (319).



The COLA at UT does exactly that. They make sure that they seven parts of a liberal education are fully covered. While I may complain that I hate the 18 hours of natural science, or 16 hours of Italian, I have noticed an increasing curiosity for everything. I like how JP included Goldberg's statement about curiosity--that curiosity enables us to access for information and different ways of doing things, and when Goldberg says "The greatest value of an education is a strong sense of curiosity" (326) I couldn't agree more. Curiosity didn't kill the cat, mediocrity did.
Or I killed the cat...?




I've noticed in many previous posts that people mention how the liberal education is one that is deemed less worthy or important than say engineering or business, but we are the people who put those two areas together. People with liberal educations are the ones who will be the top dogs--others will be servile to us. "Following completion of their undergraduate studies at liberal arts colleges, graduates often do obtain specialized training..." (318d). We aren't done learning ever. If liberal arts is "appropriate for the free man" and "contrasted with the servile arts" (318d), then aren't we, the liberal arts students, the ones who will eventually top all of the brown-nosing b-school kids? YES.

One thing I love about the liberal education is that it forces you to socialize. While you are great as one, you are much greater as many. In his Yale freshman address, Giamatti says, “So a process moves an individual to membership in a community; so a though, begun in the seminary of a single mind, participates in the construction of a citadel of living ideas…we make a city out of green thoughts…of ideals tempered by application, a civilized life not alone but in concert.” (321). I think that quote could be the motto of this class… “A civilized life not alone but in concert.” For some reason I really love that quote. Liberal arts forces you to work together in groups and learn to work with others while still maintaining your ideas and opinions. This class also seems to live out what is stated in the Daily Report from The Chronicle of Higher Education. “More and more of the goals of liberal education, such as analytical thinking and communication skills, require technological proficiency,” (328).

“All knowledge of the inner nature and feelings of others must come through the imagination” (339b). This quote is also one of my favorites because it is so true. We have no idea how other people are feeling, so we must imagine what it is like to be them in a certain situation. “Though our brother is upon the rack, as long as we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never inform us of what he suffers,” (339c). I hate to be cliché, but its like for Christians, we can never know how Christ felt nailed to the cross, but we are supposed to live every day like it was us up there and live in his image. Though hard to do, putting yourself in others shoes (even though they might not be the designer ones you wanted) is most important. What I took from the “Sympathetic Imagination” article was that in order to truly understand something or someone you have to be fully committed to your imagination and immerse yourself in their world.

So, mom and dad, love me. (I'm totally kidding they love me...sort of...who wouldn't love this?)


Yes, sometimes I sit for hours playing with the iPhoto photobooth. It's both entertaining and socially satisfying.

The non "Coca" COLA

COLA: College of Liberal Arts or College of Lazy-asses (Who weren’t smart enough to get into business.) **Not that I’m bitter about the unbelievable high standards for transferring into the B-school.**

Within reading two paragraphs of “The Origins of Universities” my entire idea of college was negated. The image that was conjured in my head was that of a haughty British university where wigs were still worn and men were its only inhabitants. “The whole body of teachers and scholars engaged, at a particular place, in giving and receiving instruction in the higher branches of learning, with definite organization and acknowledged powers and privileges…and forming an institution for the promotion of education in the higher or more important branches of learning” (340). First of all, I was never asked for my opinion or my original thoughts in a lower division course. I was neither engaged nor acknowledged—I was a UT-EID and a seat number. Secondly, who is to say which branches of learning are the highest and most important? For a lawyer, english and history would be deemed more important than an astronomy class, but the astronomer will argue that astronomy is the “end-all-be-all” of college courses. Skipping down a few paragraphs, the article bolsters my idea of British (or in this case European) stuffiness—“the oldest institutions of higher learning that have always satisfied the modern definition of a university were in Europe” (340).

What am I doing in liberal arts? Honestly—writing is the only subject in which I excel, and English is taught in the ever so daunting and overpopulated “COLA.” (Side-note: abbreviating the schools initials to the name of a sweet and bubbly drink does not represent the college well. There is nothing sweet about having to take random sciences like “the Biology of AIDS” to fulfill a credit requirement.) Until this reading, I hadn’t a clue to what a liberal education really is, and was, in fact, quite annoyed that I have to take 18 hours of a natural science or 16 hours of a foreign language. According to Newman, an education that is considered liberal is one where, “A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are, freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom…” (309). What a resume starter… “Well, Mr. CEO, you should hire me because not only am I filled with wisdom, but I am calm, free, and quite equitable.”

In my opinion, Newman hits the nail on the head with his idea that the key role of a university is the cultivation of intellect. If intellect is the capacity for thinking and acquiring knowledge, then my suggestion is to trash the grade system and teach every class like an upper division English class—a class based on discussion. To me, tests are satanic. Nothing is gained when a 19-year-old takes adderol and drinks a few Red Bulls to pull an all-nighter just to memorize 50 multiple-choice questions that he/she will forget as soon as the caffeine buzz wears off. Knowledge should be pursued for its own sake, just like Flawn said, “…knowledge is not merely a means to something beyond it, or the preliminary of certain arts into which it naturally resolves, but an end sufficient to rest in and to pursue for its own sake” (306).

I guess my ranting leads to the fact that who I am is a college student who excels in English courses but bomb the others. According to my transcript, I am an average student with mostly B’s and a few C’s in my science classes. The A’s only stand next to courses starting with an “E” I am here to improve my critical thinking, but feel suppressed by the universities grading system. I agree with Newman—learn for learning’s sake, and focus on constantly cultivating intellect.