Comments on: The http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/ :life is literature Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:36:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Eva http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-348 Eva Fri, 15 Dec 2006 01:41:57 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-348 I'm desperately hoping that when I go to college there will still be inspired people, those seeking inspiration, and those who have the ardent desire to learn. I long for the seeming utopia of college life - of course I will find, doubtlessly, that as in all other areas of life, most are complacent and disspirited. I hope that my generation moves forward, I hope we don't join the masses all marching towards our end, and I hope we aren't satisfied with joining the system and catering to it. I hope I can find intellectual, passionate and hopeful peers when I go to college. More and more I'm amazed by how few seem to be that way. I think the main thing is that society is really destructive to the natural desire we have of learning, I see those who are complacent, emotionally dead and uninterested as unfortunate products of the society. We're required, and then virtually required, to go to school for the majority of our young lives, and not encouraged necessarily to follow that which brings us joy and sparks our passion. We go to school out of necessity, not love of learning. We're taught that the main thing of importance is the symbol of a degree, a title, a piece of paper that represents our achievements, and which we have to pay an obscene amount of money for. Many people believe that, and they go to school because they feel like they have to, and they're pushed through the narrow funnel of the system in that way. It's really disheartening. But the robustness of our passion is more powerful than the destructive nature of our society. Please, please don't give up on the youth, or on the importance of your position as professor; you are powerful and very, very important, and will be as long as a single person cares about the real reason for learning. I’m desperately hoping that when I go to college there will still be inspired people, those seeking inspiration, and those who have the ardent desire to learn. I long for the seeming utopia of college life – of course I will find, doubtlessly, that as in all other areas of life, most are complacent and disspirited. I hope that my generation moves forward, I hope we don’t join the masses all marching towards our end, and I hope we aren’t satisfied with joining the system and catering to it. I hope I can find intellectual, passionate and hopeful peers when I go to college. More and more I’m amazed by how few seem to be that way. I think the main thing is that society is really destructive to the natural desire we have of learning, I see those who are complacent, emotionally dead and uninterested as unfortunate products of the society. We’re required, and then virtually required, to go to school for the majority of our young lives, and not encouraged necessarily to follow that which brings us joy and sparks our passion. We go to school out of necessity, not love of learning. We’re taught that the main thing of importance is the symbol of a degree, a title, a piece of paper that represents our achievements, and which we have to pay an obscene amount of money for. Many people believe that, and they go to school because they feel like they have to, and they’re pushed through the narrow funnel of the system in that way. It’s really disheartening. But the robustness of our passion is more powerful than the destructive nature of our society. Please, please don’t give up on the youth, or on the importance of your position as professor; you are powerful and very, very important, and will be as long as a single person cares about the real reason for learning.

]]> By: Jodi B http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-263 Jodi B Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:16:30 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-263 "the imagination as a country without borders or limits".... this is at the heart of the piece, and remember it always! but especially when you are justifiably sad about the world, for this country is truly where you live AND work, most fruitfully, and with great benefit to all of those around you (students, family, friends, and even those, like me and others on this site who probably have not even met you). with love and charm :), from Jodi “the imagination as a country without borders or limits”…. this is at the heart of the piece, and remember it always! but especially when you are justifiably sad about the world, for this country is truly where you live AND work, most fruitfully, and with great benefit to all of those around you (students, family, friends, and even those, like me and others on this site who probably have not even met you).

with love and charm :) , from Jodi

]]> By: anselm http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-255 anselm Sun, 26 Nov 2006 13:20:27 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-255 this short story is sad, but also great reading. yes, we definitely live in a regime of restauration, like france early 19th century under the re-installed bourbons. but think how fast they had another revolt, in 1832, and yet another one in 1848. and it took another century to get a modern democracy. i am a business man from germany who has not forgotten his 68er background. just take a look at what's going on in the environment debate: suddenly things are in motion again, even in the US, driven, among others by a conservative politician who is governing the sad professors state. i defninitely agree with the person who wrote about the pendulum swinging back. next time we won't let our parents stop us from going to woodstock. so please keep on writing, sad professoressa! this short story is sad, but also great reading. yes, we definitely live in a regime of restauration, like france early 19th century under the re-installed bourbons. but think how fast they had another revolt, in 1832, and yet another one in 1848. and it took another century to get a modern democracy.

i am a business man from germany who has not forgotten his 68er background. just take a look at what’s going on in the environment debate: suddenly things are in motion again, even in the US, driven, among others by a conservative politician who is governing the sad professors state.

i defninitely agree with the person who wrote about the pendulum swinging back. next time we won’t let our parents stop us from going to woodstock. so please keep on writing, sad professoressa!

]]> By: shyla http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-142 shyla Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:45:22 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-142 Thanks for writing this. I am an english undergrad and I am beginning to hate school. I want to quit in fact because I don't want to be emotionally dead and I don't want to be taught by sad teachers. "Don't quit school" people tell me, but in this field of study where I'll end up being a barista with or without a degree what will better feed my ability to write and my love of poetry and literature? Being taught by sad bored professors or living a life that doesn't drain me of my own ideas. Sadness can be a little contagious. I don't want to end up on my death bed thinking I could have been more free than working for a bunch of scmucks in suits. (but no matter what thats probably what will happen). Thanks for your story. Thanks for writing this. I am an english undergrad and I am beginning to hate school. I want to quit in fact because I don’t want to be emotionally dead and I don’t want to be taught by sad teachers. “Don’t quit school” people tell me, but in this field of study where I’ll end up being a barista with or without a degree what will better feed my ability to write and my love of poetry and literature? Being taught by sad bored professors or living a life that doesn’t drain me of my own ideas. Sadness can be a little contagious. I don’t want to end up on my death bed thinking I could have been more free than working for a bunch of scmucks in suits. (but no matter what thats probably what will happen). Thanks for your story.

]]> By: Ruth http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-139 Ruth Tue, 07 Nov 2006 20:40:11 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-139 I think about going to grad school sometimes. But it's so expensive, and when it's over I am almost afraid that I might be right that I won't have learned what I hoped I'd learn, that I won't have gained what I'd hoped I'd gain. Would you contact a stranger and teach them because you wanted to inspire and they wanted to learn? I think about going to grad school sometimes. But it’s so expensive, and when it’s over I am almost afraid that I might be right that I won’t have learned what I hoped I’d learn, that I won’t have gained what I’d hoped I’d gain.

Would you contact a stranger and teach them because you wanted to inspire and they wanted to learn?

]]> By: Larry http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-105 Larry Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:31:43 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-105 In Hollywood we refer to the "dream factory". Is the University a dream factory, or more precisely, a broken dream factory? Does everyone approach the University (whether as a student or a teacher) harboring a dream about what the University has to offer? The Sad Professor dreamt of the University as a revolutionary utopian community; others approach the University as an intellectual meritocracy, or a pre-punched ticket to the good life. From this perspective, the University becomes the home of Sad Professors, and Sad Students; a factory like the University manufactures sadness as it shatters dreams. This sadness deserves to be taken seriously. Yet, perhaps more remarkable is that the University is still capable of inspiring the kinds of dreams that CAN be shattered. What other institution in this broken post-modern mess of a world is capable of creating hope? To paraphrase, isn't it better to have dreamt and lost, than never to have dreamt at all? In Hollywood we refer to the “dream factory”. Is the University a dream factory, or more precisely, a broken dream factory? Does everyone approach the University (whether as a student or a teacher) harboring a dream about what the University has to offer? The Sad Professor dreamt of the University as a revolutionary utopian community; others approach the University as an intellectual meritocracy, or a pre-punched ticket to the good life.

From this perspective, the University becomes the home of Sad Professors, and Sad Students; a factory like the University manufactures sadness as it shatters dreams. This sadness deserves to be taken seriously. Yet, perhaps more remarkable is that the University is still capable of inspiring the kinds of dreams that CAN be shattered. What other institution in this broken post-modern mess of a world is capable of creating hope? To paraphrase, isn’t it better to have dreamt and lost, than never to have dreamt at all?

]]> By: Christi Love http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-104 Christi Love Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:31:01 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-104 Take heart, sad professor, I do believe there are still sparks that can benefit from what you have to offer and even inspire you back, especially among the newbies coming up. For their sake you must persevere in the face of the corporate flaks who run the show. Know you are not alone. Fellow sad citizens toil in other fields, rendered equally irrelevant by the vapid greed of the current regime. Utopia may be lost, but regimes topple under their own bloated corpulence and the pendelum will swing again. One can only hope old farts like ourselves will live to see it. Thanks for sharing. OX, The once and future FFF Take heart, sad professor, I do believe there are still sparks that can benefit from what you have to offer and even inspire you back, especially among the newbies coming up. For their sake you must persevere in the face of the corporate flaks who run the show. Know you are not alone. Fellow sad citizens toil in other fields, rendered equally irrelevant by the vapid greed of the current regime. Utopia may be lost, but regimes topple under their own bloated corpulence and the pendelum will swing again. One can only hope old farts like ourselves will live to see it. Thanks for sharing.
OX,
The once and future FFF

]]> By: erika suderburg http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-102 erika suderburg Thu, 26 Oct 2006 04:22:17 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-102 oh man just got off the freeway with other sad professors this is realism at its finest where is my suicide pill? oh man just got off the freeway with other sad professors
this is realism at its finest
where is my suicide pill?

]]> By: Stephanie Hammer http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-101 Stephanie Hammer Thu, 26 Oct 2006 01:30:02 +0000 http://www.400words.com/2006/10/15/the-sad-professors/#comment-101 cool! you posted my piece! thanks! Stephanie Hammer, Los Angeles cool! you posted my piece! thanks! Stephanie Hammer, Los Angeles

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