A different kind of "Class Struggle"

Well, it's mid-October again, and that means it's time for midterms. There's no centralized regulation within or between the different colleges here about when or how how many significant tests can be given in a semester. While this is obviously a good thing from the perspective of learning, the upside is that midterms basically last all the way until finals. The reason for this is that some courses, especially survey or introductory ones with a great breath of topics to cover, have to test three or four times in a semester.

Here's the script for tests, which goes something like this for the stereotypical "big freshman lecture" everyone fears attending:
1. Come to class. Notice that people who never come actually showed!
2. Wait for five minutes in trepidation and frenzied last-minute review.
3. Get suitably irritated as your personal space is impinged on by an unexpectedly-full row of chairs.
4. Do the test.
5. Submit the test in a mob anxious to escape the lecture hall.

This kind of class is definitely memorable, but the vast majority of mine haven't been this way. Most of the time, I've been in much smaller courses of 25-30 people. The more advanced coursework I take, the smaller the classes get-- the average for this semester is probably around 20 people.

Right now, I'm enrolled in a graduate-level course, and I'm one of four people. My "midterm" is a ten-page paper, due this coming Saturday, way better in my opinion than the multiple-choice packets and essay handouts of my freshman year. The subject is the Political Economy of Japan, or how different elements of that country's institutions have combined to produce certain political, economic and social arrangements since the end of the Second World War. Each week, a different student gives the lecture, based on the syllabus our professor wrote and developed; this is great because we get to develop presentation skills as well as draw our own critical conclusions at every stage of learning (rather than questioning what we're taught after the fact).

There are a lot of opportunities here to engage in this kind of innovative learning. I think this is probably because of the real-world backgrounds that most of our faculty have. Academics are great, and the vast majority of faculty have Ph.D.s, but getting professors with life experience is just as important. For example, my professor in the graduate course was an aide to the famous Japanese politician Ichiro Ozawa; the professor in a national-security course I'm taking worked for years as an aide to Sen. Joe Lieberman. The strength of GW's faculty shouldn't be underestimated, particularly in the political science, economics and international affairs fields in which the school excels. If you play your cards right and get a quality teaching experience (not too hard to do here) the "class struggle" doesn't have to be so much of one.

Well, if everyone's clear on what we just covered I guess we can let out early today. Send me any questions at ash1290@gwmail.gwu.edu.

Adam

Next time: My G-Dubs Jobyssey continues in a new direction as I discover the meaning of business casual vs. business conservative, share tie-tying tips, and whatever else occurs to me.