I love school

I don't think I'll ever say this, but I seriously love school at the moment, albeit, this is only my second week into the semester (technically third week, but who counts the first week with just the syllabus as real school?)

Most of my classes are discussion based and in order to participate, we have to read a lot. By a lot, I meant 30 pages of readings in average and we have 4-5 assigned to us every week for every class. This also excludes the supplemental suggested readings that we're meant to read. (Honestly though, who reads those?!) I had a hard time following, let alone participating, my first week's class. This week though, discussions seemed way better and I could actually say what I wanted to say, and that what I said was useful... an important point when everyone around you seemed to have read 300 more books than you did.

I've had people asked me what is the point of studying Anthropology. It's not exactly what that person asked, but basically that's what s/he meant. I... think it's because it's such a philosophical yet so practical field of study that most people think it's pointless. Yes, we can technically study anything and make an argument out of it, but, isn't that what the fun part is? It makes you think!!! Why just sit there and type numbers and reorganize documents? I know you earn more than I do, but ask yourself truthfully, do you feel useful about yourself?

We discussed leading contemporary Anthropologists in class today and the name Graeber came up. David Graeber wrote a lot of radical articles and was one of the first supporters of Occupy Wall Street. He was denied tenure at Yale basically because of what he wrote didn't fit well with Yale... but of course the university denied that. Anyhow, I think his articles are worth reading and below is the link to his latest one, which basically talked about everything I felt while I was a trainee. I also think it's a slap in the face for the 10% of people from our high school graduating class that became lawyers...

Enjoy!

On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs