Because the Internet needs yet another person's opinions made available to all, I have decided to create this blog. It's healthy to have a forum (read: outlet) to express one's opinions (read: rants) about matters of public interest. Besides, my wife does not deserve to be the only one subject to my discourse on the matter of higher education in America and around the world. Also, thanks to the development of IPv6 by the Internet Engineering Task Force, there is plenty of space on the Internet for new blogs; I need not feel guilty for taking up some space.
I created this blog so that I may have a medium through which to share my opinions, observations, and reflections on higher education. The reason that I think my thoughts might be interesting to others is because I have a relatively uncommon educational background. I am a first-generation college student from a working-class family. For this reason, I came to college not knowing what to expect. I had only known a few people who attended any college, let alone graduated, before I began my undergraduate studies. I didn't really know exactly what I was doing when I started college and, as a result, my performance my first year was rather lackluster. This is not to say that I had a problem with partying or procrastination. I simply didn't know how to manage being a full-time student and a nearly full-time employee at the same time. After my first year performance, I lost my four-year scholarship and had to drop out to work and save up money to go back. I spent about a year and a half working full time before I transferred to a (better) university. During this break, I tried to learn as much as I could about how to handle the college workload. I completed my undergraduate studies without any more major interruptions. These experiences, however, are not what shape most of my opinions about higher education.
Perhaps the most unique characteristic of my educational background is that I earned a BA in the humanities and a BS in engineering (cum laude if I may be so ostentatious). I believe this experience has given me a unique perspective on the debate about the value and future of the humanities in higher education. I have found myself both defending "vocational" studies like engineering to my fellow humanities students and promoting the values of the liberal arts to my engineering colleagues. I also learned that not all professors are above such beliefs regarding art versus science. This all-too-often hostile relationship between the arts and sciences is what I call the Academic Divide.
My hope is that my background will bring a fresh (and hopefully sometimes funny) perspective to some of the major issues facing higher education today. I'll try to make a new entry every few days or so, but I may be a bit slow as I get used to this whole blogging thing. I love active discussions and will try to post often in response to comments.
And yes, I did choose a blog title that shortens to "BAD-ASS."
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