Who Stole All the Fun?

While I'm thinking about education, it's time that paternalistically impart another story upon you. So gather round the fire, children...

I have always felt that my education has been too easy. This is not to say that it hasn't been a crapload of work, but the main challenge that I have had has merely been finding enough time to get everything done. Receiving the coveted mark of "A" has never been a problem. Long ago, I came to the conclusion that this was because I was receiving a mediocre education in an environment of grade inflation. Look at it like this: how could Ted and Leeor both have 4.0 GPAs in all of the same classes that I take if there were not rampant grade inflation in this universe? It just wouldn't be possible, you must concur.

Last spring, running out of classes in math and physics, so I applied to take classes at Reed and Lewis and Clark Colleges, where they let a certain number of high school students take one class. I was accepted at both places, but because I was stupid and blindly following this idiotic passion for math and physics, I turned down Reed. None of their math or physics classes at my level fit into my schedule, unless I wanted to retake calculus. Thankfully, Lewis and Clark let me take two classes instead of the usual one, so I could take both math and physics there. One and a half weeks into both of the classes, I am absolutely stunned. These classes are not just easy, but they are easier than high school! Bear in mind that Lewis and Clark College calls both of these course sophomore/200-level classes. I thought Zaraza's class was pretty much a walk in the park, although it required a reasonable amount of work. This physics class is also a walk in the park, covers a bunch of stuff I already know, and has about 2/3 the amount of work. Homework is even worth a whole 20% of the grade. I think it was 10% or 15% in Culpepper's class. Although Culpepper's class required absolutely no true work at all, it was actually more difficult than this math class because she was such a bad teacher that it was always ambiguous as to when the next test was. In this multivariable/vector calc class (a venerable one by L&C standards), all we have covered in 1 and a half weeks is the dot product and the cross product. That's it! That would be less than one block day of material in Fisher's class. And it's not like we're learning it from the "pure" analysis perspective either. This class is very much in the applied/computational teaching paradigm (making it even less interesting). Somehow the teacher expects to get to Green's, Stokes, and the Divergence Theorem by the end. I suppose that multivariable calculus really isn't that difficult though. I haven't talked to anyone who considers it to be particularly hard. Nevertheless, the rate at which we are progressing is highly discouraging.

Physics is no better--if not worse. We've spent as much time getting to know everyone's name as we have learning everything else. We have covered single and multiple integration, and that is it. That's everything! One and a half weeks! The basics of multiple integration (we've only really done the basics) takes about 5 minutes to grasp: set the right limits, then integrate until you eradicate all of Leibniz's ubiquitous S's. I figured out that if I took all the right classes this year I could fulfill all of the requirements for a minor in physics at Lewis and Clark. Clearly this is a worthless program. So basically, in math I've learned what (assuming I didn't already know it, which I did) I could learn alone in about an hour or two, and in physics what I could teach myself in about 5 or 6 minutes. I've wasted ten hours in class, $40, and my $60 credit on Powells.com in exchange for about 6 minutes worth of additional knowledge and the same damn calculus book that I used (but sold) to teach myself calculus last summer. It's depressing, truly. The only consolation is that while the main Lewis and Clark library isn't fantastic, it has a collection of math books that is about 100 times better than the entire public library system, and a collection of economics books that is about 500 times better (both numbers are very accurately determined). I have full borrowing priviledges. So what do I do? That is a very interesting question. There are three things. Firstly, I'm going to do more fun things than usual this semester. Secondly, I'm going to try to get a solid foundation in the basics of real analysis. And thirdly, assuming that I can cover enough analysis on my own, I'm going to try to sweet talk Jerry Shurman into letting me take complex analysis at Reed in the spring. I'll probably fail at all three of them.

So what does this all have to do with my original point about education and the scourge of grade inflation? You can draw your own conclusions, but I see two likely ones. First, it is possible and probably quite likely that Lewis and Clark is a terrible school. College is supposed to be hard, and Lewis and Clark is definitely not. Ironically, the school seems to hold a reasonable reputation, but I cannot understand how this could possibly be. A second, nonexclusive conclusion is that perhaps my education has not not so bad or easy. Perhaps the grade inflation I have experienced is no worse than median everywhere else. Maybe my schooling really has been "hard" when compared most other places. While I find this second conclusion very unlikely, I can't deny that it is a possibility. The moral, in my opinion, is to avoid going to a crappy or even mediocre college at all costs whatsoever, and to avoid grade inflation like the plague. If the plague consumes you, at least go somewhere where you can do cool research.