During my time at Saint Mary's, I have experience the wonderful world of liberal arts and the overlapping of course material across classes and departments. I expected this to happen this semester since I am taking a HUST and a history course, but I had an unexpected cross-over earlier this week-- I quoted the Yellow Wallpaper to my photography class. While critiquing my peers' work for our "Extreme Angles" project, I was struck by a photo by my classmate, Caitlin. She had framed a shot of her couch cushions so that three were meeting at the center with their swirling floral design. I immediately thought of the "irritating" yellow wallpaper the narrator becomes consumed with during her stay at the summer home and though the pattern did not bother me in the least, Gilman's description of bulbous eyes and dangling heads ran through my head.
I find this type of occurrence fascinating. Because of my "setting" at Saint Mary's, I am able to learn holistically from different angles of the same subject. My classes interweave and affect one another and I love it. If I had selected a different place for my college studies, I may not have had these experiences.
You raise an interesting question here. To what extent is your experience particular to SMC? A liberal arts model of education? Or, is it something that, in fact, may happen anytime you are presented with new ideas, ways of thinking, etc? Did you feel such overlap throughout your college career, or is this something you've developed?
ReplyDeleteI feel that there is always going to be overlap or common experiences throughout life, but I felt that at SMC, it was more pronounced as far as course material was concerned. There was a time during the fall '07 semester when I learned about the same subject in three different classes and for very different reasons- in respect to operations research, marketing research and computer simulation. I can only speak about SMC since it is the only liberal arts school I have experienced, but I would venture to say that my encounter with "overlaps" would be common at other schools.
ReplyDeleteI've felt this overlap during much of my college career, but I'm appreciating it more as a senior.