Wagner's Ring Cycle, as depicted by Bugs Bunny
So I'm in the throes of doing competitor analysis, and Hillsdale College is practically insufferable in the haughtiness of their noble pursuit of academic and intellectual pursuits.
This opinion is pretty rich coming from someone who graduated from a party school with a marketing degree. BUT I was a double major, with a minor!
What I'm wondering - and this is a mashup of a Why Art Matters and Typing Out Loud - is if it is more respectable to obtain your knowledge from studying the classics, such as Socrates and Descartes? Or is it equally okay for a more modest collection of knowledge bites to occur, such as our collection of Uncle John's Bathroom Readers? As Elaine Benes scolded Jerry on Seinfeld, "Your knowledge of fine art comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons."
I suppose it is more direct and earnest to go straight to the source, but there is a joy to discovery and organic curiosity, or as I have described it, "falling down the rabbit hole."
This year, I have been keeping a journal, cataloging something new learned every day. It has not been easy, and I am currently behind. It all started when I drove by the Big Rapids airport on January 1, and Will randomly asked me what the airport code was. I did not know.
You can take "I don't know" defensively, or you can take it as a challenge to find the answer.
How Glass Onion led to deck chair restoration. Before...
After!
Because of this wonder, I paused to watch birds swooping and flocking, only to find out that it was a murmuration of starlings. The song Glass Onion clued me into what a dovetail joint is, which led to Facebook binging videos of furniture restoration, which also led to obtaining free furniture from the Marketplace to be restored.
Many years ago, a casual reference to the Stonewall riots on the show Mad Men led me down the rabbit hole of the many facets of the civil rights movement from the 60s that weren't covered in history class. It wasn't just about the Vietnam War - this was about women's rights, migrant workers' rights, the rights of African Americans, and, for Bob Benson, who showed up in Joan's apartment, the rights of the LGBTQ members of society.
I'd be interested to know what professionals in the field of education and academics think. Is this considered surface bites of pop culture, no more nutritious than a McNugget, or are you eager to see the spark and cultivate it to something richer and more substantial?
I type this as Duo Lingo's bird of knowledge is applauding day 2 of my learning some awkward Spanish.
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