So, it's all dependent on the instructor whether we become interested in and good at something.
Like it or not, strong emotions are catching. If someone is passionate about what s/he teaches, that rubs off on the students. Plus, if the instructor is deft at guiding the uninitiated through the thickets, it's almost guaranteed that even the apathetic students start thinking about the subject.
It will first be about this strange instructor who loves something that looks awfully boring.
Gradually, that would make them think about the subject that s/he teaches. It is up to each student, whether that interest is sustained after the departure of the instructor. Not all students in a class would become, for example, historians even if they had an exceptional history teacher. But a good instructor can make students interested in something, at least for a while.
The movie, "Dead Poets Society," is about what a charismatic instructor could do.
Instead of being drawn by charisma, it could be a crush on a cute instructor, fresh out of school. In general, some kind of personal admiration would work.
We shouldn't forget that it goes the other way around, too. It could be quite detrimental when you sense that the instructor does not like you and you are clueless as to why.
How grades are determined is crucial, too. They're akin to prices. We are ever ready to change our actions, depending on relative prices. In the US where oil used to be cheap and abundant, the sudden increase in the price of oil of late is affecting travel, housing size and location.
More people are ready to take public transportation, live in a smaller house and not purchase one in the suburbs where hours of driving is required to get to work.
One day, my sister found out that her biology teacher examines only what is written as footnotes in the textbook.
How bizzare!
It is, but as a student, she responded to it by memorizing the footnotes and not much else. Exams are very personal anyway. It's all about how the instructor sees the subject, or education of that subject.
It's all personal...
On that note, the scary thing is that attraction to a person can make you do almost anything.
Is it about romantic love?
That's the most obvious example, but we have the tendency to give into personal cult.
Personal cult as in many of us trying to imitate the way a movie star dresses?
You got it. A person becomes prominent for her/his talent in one area, and then, other aspects of that person's life increase in value.
I know that one. A cookbook by a famous actress is much more likely to be published than one by an unknown author with good recipes. That happens even when there is no evidence that a well-known actress cooks well.
Think about the big photographs of authors that occupy the entire back covers of bestseller books. The value of the writing is not dependent on how the writer may look, and yet, many people are interested in the writers' appearances.
Another instance of personal cult.
I think monotheism has the same element.
How so?
The followers of that religion believe in whatever its founder said and did. Every act, even the trivial ones, are interpreted to have some meaning. I think ultimately everything in this world is deeply influenced by the personalities and the looks of the persons involved.
Another sweeping generalization of yours.
Why has monotheism taken over polytheism? It's because we are into personal worship. Think about this one. What if Ron and Maggie were repelled by each other?
I think the Berlin Wall would have come down anyway.
Their mutual admiration for shared political convictions encouraged the two in implementing them.
That's about their politics and not about how they thought about each other personally. As far as I know, Ron could not function without Nancy.
That certainly doesn't mean that he thought all other women were equally worthless. If both Ron and Maggie thought "Yikes! I don't know what it is, but I can't stand this person,'' they would not have had contact in the way they did.
Do you think Maggie served him tea with scones, while Ron showed her one of his movies that he had tucked into his suitcase?
They're lucky, because one of them could tell clotted cream from white and grey matters that the other must have been carrying around in a jar and put on the table... If there had been no encouragement from the other side of the Atlantic, their zeal for smaller governments with bigger military budgets and lower income taxes could have been curtailed.
Do you really believe so?
I do. Another example is Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai. When Nixon visited China in 1972, Zhou took him around to show the country. What if Nixon just couldn't stand Zhou's manners or his face? Or what if Zou had had no respect for Nixon and did little hide it?
Whether Zhou and Nixon were disgusted by each other or not, Nixon must have realized how much money there is to be made if every Chinese household were to buy a TV, a fridge, a car, etc. He could still see that it was politically wise to normalize the diplomatic relationship. Zhou must have liked it that it was the Americans who were courting them and not the other way around.
No doubt, money can mask certain smell and some other inconvenient, unpleasant aspects of people. Let me bolster my argument by referring to many women who wield power through their politician husbands. It is their personal relationships that make the wives' consultation valuable to the husbands. Some of them even inherit the official titles after the husbands' death.
Of personal likes and dislikes, this world is made...
Like it or not, strong emotions are catching. If someone is passionate about what s/he teaches, that rubs off on the students. Plus, if the instructor is deft at guiding the uninitiated through the thickets, it's almost guaranteed that even the apathetic students start thinking about the subject.
It will first be about this strange instructor who loves something that looks awfully boring.
Gradually, that would make them think about the subject that s/he teaches. It is up to each student, whether that interest is sustained after the departure of the instructor. Not all students in a class would become, for example, historians even if they had an exceptional history teacher. But a good instructor can make students interested in something, at least for a while.
The movie, "Dead Poets Society," is about what a charismatic instructor could do.
Instead of being drawn by charisma, it could be a crush on a cute instructor, fresh out of school. In general, some kind of personal admiration would work.
We shouldn't forget that it goes the other way around, too. It could be quite detrimental when you sense that the instructor does not like you and you are clueless as to why.
How grades are determined is crucial, too. They're akin to prices. We are ever ready to change our actions, depending on relative prices. In the US where oil used to be cheap and abundant, the sudden increase in the price of oil of late is affecting travel, housing size and location.
More people are ready to take public transportation, live in a smaller house and not purchase one in the suburbs where hours of driving is required to get to work.
One day, my sister found out that her biology teacher examines only what is written as footnotes in the textbook.
How bizzare!
It is, but as a student, she responded to it by memorizing the footnotes and not much else. Exams are very personal anyway. It's all about how the instructor sees the subject, or education of that subject.
It's all personal...
On that note, the scary thing is that attraction to a person can make you do almost anything.
Is it about romantic love?
That's the most obvious example, but we have the tendency to give into personal cult.
Personal cult as in many of us trying to imitate the way a movie star dresses?
You got it. A person becomes prominent for her/his talent in one area, and then, other aspects of that person's life increase in value.
I know that one. A cookbook by a famous actress is much more likely to be published than one by an unknown author with good recipes. That happens even when there is no evidence that a well-known actress cooks well.
Think about the big photographs of authors that occupy the entire back covers of bestseller books. The value of the writing is not dependent on how the writer may look, and yet, many people are interested in the writers' appearances.
Another instance of personal cult.
I think monotheism has the same element.
How so?
The followers of that religion believe in whatever its founder said and did. Every act, even the trivial ones, are interpreted to have some meaning. I think ultimately everything in this world is deeply influenced by the personalities and the looks of the persons involved.
Another sweeping generalization of yours.
Why has monotheism taken over polytheism? It's because we are into personal worship. Think about this one. What if Ron and Maggie were repelled by each other?
I think the Berlin Wall would have come down anyway.
Their mutual admiration for shared political convictions encouraged the two in implementing them.
That's about their politics and not about how they thought about each other personally. As far as I know, Ron could not function without Nancy.
That certainly doesn't mean that he thought all other women were equally worthless. If both Ron and Maggie thought "Yikes! I don't know what it is, but I can't stand this person,'' they would not have had contact in the way they did.
Do you think Maggie served him tea with scones, while Ron showed her one of his movies that he had tucked into his suitcase?
They're lucky, because one of them could tell clotted cream from white and grey matters that the other must have been carrying around in a jar and put on the table... If there had been no encouragement from the other side of the Atlantic, their zeal for smaller governments with bigger military budgets and lower income taxes could have been curtailed.
Do you really believe so?
I do. Another example is Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai. When Nixon visited China in 1972, Zhou took him around to show the country. What if Nixon just couldn't stand Zhou's manners or his face? Or what if Zou had had no respect for Nixon and did little hide it?
Whether Zhou and Nixon were disgusted by each other or not, Nixon must have realized how much money there is to be made if every Chinese household were to buy a TV, a fridge, a car, etc. He could still see that it was politically wise to normalize the diplomatic relationship. Zhou must have liked it that it was the Americans who were courting them and not the other way around.
No doubt, money can mask certain smell and some other inconvenient, unpleasant aspects of people. Let me bolster my argument by referring to many women who wield power through their politician husbands. It is their personal relationships that make the wives' consultation valuable to the husbands. Some of them even inherit the official titles after the husbands' death.
Of personal likes and dislikes, this world is made...
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