I used to empathize too much with television shows. I found, and I was smart enough to find that there was a stock script between sitcoms in the early 1990's when I was growing up. In such a stock script, a young adult or some other character would lie just to have people like him or her. At the end of the episode, after weird consequences of the lie happened, of course the character is caught in the lie and has to say, "I just lied so that you would like me." I have, of course, no idea where this fits in except to say that it's an interesting experience.
I don't mean to sound cynical when I say that despite its flaws, Judaism is an incredible source of education. I see education as leading almost necessarily to progress. If we put a super-student characteristics list together, we might point to an Asian-American's experience in high school. We would then ask, what is it that makes him a great student?
1. Extreme parenting
2. The emphasis on individuality
3. Responsibility
4. (Perhaps) the ability to speak a different language
5. A community base to emphasize learning
6. An emphasis on argument within the community
7. The ability, even within communities, to say no to peer pressure
Malcolm Gladwell's article on Stanley Kaplan, who invented the Kaplan course, states that parenting is a uniting factor between high test scores for SAT.
Looking at other immigrant populations who came to America that I have seen, such as Russian, Bosnian, Cambodian, African, and other Europeans, I cannot help but feel that this is the case.
Alternatively, the high scorers in my high school who were not immigrants without question always had strong parenting in their households.
The cool part about all of this is that Judaism builds this sort of structure more or less naturally from culture and traditions.
Personally, I consider the limited brains that I do have to be mostly dependent on the seeding of my parents.
People talk about innate intelligence, and I think that is a fair caveat. After all, individuals who are born into orphanages grow up to be geniuses, like Isaac Newton. I think education is more important because even if we could count-predict-built the high-speed neuron functioning of finding a random genius, the rest of us still have to learn somehow.
Works Cited:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/12/17/011217crat_atlarge
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The University has an easy way to improve -- we aren’t utilizing it: the unity of the Triangle itself. There are many benefits to greater unification. Unfortunately, they aren’t always obvious.
For example, the nature of the intentional division between UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU was the emphasis of one on liberal arts, Carolina, and the other on engineering, State. Despite this difference, the schools share an obvious overlap in the sciences and many other programs.
Unification in this situation means the necessary blur between the schools. UNC students who want to take an engineering course could have access to better instruction over here. Many times this would be the only place to get information on an engineering topic. This same example applies to dozens of other majors.
Two of my friends have utilized the unity of the Triangle to great success. One friend took a basic level Hebrew course at UNC -- the other is taking specialized courses in upper-level economic philosophy. Neither class is offered here.
Too many of us have no idea how to utilize these resources without deep friendships with professors. There are no computer programs to help, and advisers have no recommendations for such programs.
Likewise, but in a different way, if there is a class Carolina and State offer, but have too many students for, having access to more teachers and classes brings down the class sizes. This is an essential point considering the budget cuts and increasing class sizes on campus. Schools that are in the UNC System, such as UNC and North Carolina Central University, already provide this sort of access.
A greater diffusion means students would have the ability to experience other schools. If people have access to more teachers the quality of education would increase.
Small class size is important because students have an easier time learning in those environments.
Additionally, distance courses would invite a sort of inter-campus diffusion.
UNC and Duke University are integral parts of the Triangle, but their significance to the University seems marginal. Most students here will admit that cultural diffusion between these schools from clubs, intramural (intra-Triangle) sports, conferences and various other programs are nonexistent. People who are friends with students from these schools were friends in high school or met through Greek Life programs.
But the biggest thing that both the student-life culture and the classes could benefit from is fun. The nature of more students means that there are people with our interests and specializations at those schools -- schools which are literally across the highway.
NCSU students, professors and faculty need to research these programs. Administrators and professors need to implement student exchange programs immediately. Duke and Carolina already have intricate programs for semester exchanges and intra-institutional classes. We must follow this example.
The InterResidence Council and the Union Activities Board should work toward greater Triangle unity with various interscholastic programs. Clubs and individuals should reach out and act for greater unity.
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