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06/02/08 |
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Life’s Best CoursesHave you ever stopped to think about the courses you took in school, and which ones of them really turned out to be important? There were a lot of them that the teachers and your parents said, ‘Take this course, it’ll be a very helpful one in life.’ But how many of them really were? I think math is the one that people usually say is the most important: ‘You need it to get into university, technical college, etc.’ or ‘You just can’t imagine how often you will use this in life.’ But besides the very basics of math that I learned by the 7th grade, I haven’t had much need for it. - Biology and chemistry: around the time our first child was 5, I wished I’d done more of the natural sciences. The questions they ask! I also wish I remember the names of all the trees and bones in your body that I learned in the 5th grade. Other than that, I haven’t used the stuff from those courses much. - English class (you’d call it ‘äidinkieli’)…well, that one has been useful for me, mostly because I have had several jobs in writing over the years. Also, even though I didn’t much like reading literature (reading I liked, good literature I wasn’t so crazy about), I have to say that there is a lot I remember from the books we had to read. But when I really stopped to think about what stuff I’ve used over the years, or what stuff I find myself still enjoying in life (and that mostly because I took a course on it), I came up with these courses: - Elements of Political Theory: it was about different philosophies on how government should work, and covered Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, and a bunch of other philosophers. I work in a big company, which is quite a lot like a small country. So the ideas on how to run countries are often pretty useful in figuring out how to manage in the company. I have found myself using the ideas from that course more than I ever could have imagined. - Music Appreciation. When I got my first university degree, they had this idea that, on top of the regular courses, everyone should have to take some courses in the arts. So we ended up taking courses on music and things. This one taught you the basics of classical music and something about its history. To this day, I find that the stuff I learned back then helps me understand and…well…appreciate music more (thus the name, I guess). - Some other course on politics: I can’t even remember the name of this course, but in it we read a book which was about the myths and the realities of politics. In everything they do in politics, you can find a myth, which is the nice thing they tell you they’re doing and the nice reasons they tell you for doing it. If you look beyond the myths, you can most often also find a more realistic reason for doing things, which they’re not telling you at all. Once you get used to doing that, you find yourself doing it all the time. I have been amazed over and over again by people who really believe what politicians are telling them because they never look beyond the myth. I have found it a very helpful thing to always try and figure out what’s really behind things. - Lunch (my favorite course of the day!): I learned to take a break in the middle of the day to eat when I was in the first grade already, and I’m still doing it today. I know people who have forgotten this great idea over the years. # # WORDS: Math: matematiikka (I think British people say ‘maths’ but Americans use ‘math’), Literature: kirjallisuus, Government: valtionhallinto or hallitus, Appreciation: arvostus or ymmärtäminen
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