My doctoral studies commenced in Fall 2017. I wouldn’t have predicted then that the last 1.5 years of my PhD would involve a global pandemic. I have spent much of 2020 plus the last few months working from home, and contrary to the popular vote, time seems to have flown by.
I’m now on the final lap of my doctoral studies. Productivity and efficiency have been my daily mantra since my last post. It wasn’t easy, but after two weeks of 12 hour work cycles supplemented by some unhealthy snacks, energy drinks, and some encouraging music for company, I finished compiling my thesis. Thesis fatigue would soon set in afterward, and I would spend an additional week allowing my fried brain cells to recalibrate.
The break gave me much needed time to relax, get my sleep cycle back in line, and get back to normalcy. The finish line beckons with my doctoral defense looming in the near future but with my thesis writing complete, I can now have a balanced diet of studying while gradually ramping up my transition toward a post-doctoral career in writing and art.
That being said, I can now catch up on my initial slew of posts that I had intended prior to my study frenzy. There is much to be done and I intend to keep up with some nice stories I had planned to share with all of you alongside some new science to entertain on The Procrastinating Scientist, and artwork to post on my Instagram feed.
Exams are an annual/semi-annual ritual most students have to experience at some point during school or university. I myself had to write one last week. While I came out mostly unscathed, this particular occasion was all the more memorable given that it was truly the final curtain for my academic career as far as written exams are concerned; this final exam, was in fact, the FINAL exam of my academic life.
While my 20-year-old counterpart would have relished and wildly celebrated such a reality, I came out of the exam hall feeling quite pensive about the whole affair. It felt like the end of a long and occasionally tortuous journey that had molded my personal perspectives and opinions about written exams, and the present-day state of education.
Back in high-school, I had considered written exams as a means to test my skills and challenge my wits. By the time I had finished undergraduate studies, my viewpoint changed drastically, with written exams no longer being my cup of tea. I attributed this to the rapid environment that is university studies where exams just became another thing on that long checklist of things to do. Accompanied by tight and narrow margins of assignments and course project deadlines, written exams and studying evolved into a race against time, a means to a letter, than an actual endeavor for knowledge. I would finish my undergraduate studies quite frustrated with how things had turned about.
Ironically enough, those very frustrations set the ground for positive aspirations in the future. A few years after my BSc. degree, I would obtain an MSc. degree, following which I would begin my doctoral studies. Written exams still remained a part of my academic life but something changed. It took me a while to figure it out, but in the end, it was quite simple. I came to the realization that written exams are full of shit.
It became quite evident that my exam writing skills didn’t correlate nor were they directly transferable to improving and supplementing my academic experience or my aptitude for research. In my case, I stumbled upon this solution in the most straightforward manner possible: working as a research assistant for one year and proving to myself that I was actually “worthy” of my academic aspirations. Yet, there should have been no reason for me to be pressured into proving this to myself.
While written exams are popularly utilized as a means to weed out the student population in a hierarchical system of academic merit, it is not by any means the most efficient. On the other hand, it has served its purpose as the great illusion that often daunts a student’s psyche with regards to being an indirect and ineffective statement on their potential, and future success.
Multiple cases in point were my encounters with various students and peers who would find average turnovers in exams, and yet remain gifted personalities with great intellects and potential. It wasn’t rare to see the same batch of students also diverge from their original academic aspirations thanks to the lack of representation that written exams (and consequently, their grades) provided for their resume.
The sheer stress and pressure of exams translated to my transcript which to this date remains a beautiful collage of letters traversing the ABCDF scheme of the grading alphabet. Those same factors also translated to an inferiority complex of sorts, culminating in the completion of my undergraduate degree, when I felt that I was not good enough for my field of choice, and that I didn’t have the potential to seek and find success at greater heights.
It took me several years to overcome this complex. It helped to recognize written exams were not the absolute judgment of one’s potential as the education system so often makes it seem. I had to admit to myself that neither my skills or potential were absolutely defined by a piece of paper that I had to complete in a closed-room environment under set rules. This pushed me to work harder, not at writing exams or getting perfect grades, but at learning to enjoy my own pursuit of knowledge including its ups and downs.
Leaving the exam hall last week, I was glad that I had finished writing my final “final.” I could now look forward to fully and freely engaging my curiosity for knowledge, in whatever form that may be. I’m thankful to have come so far. My success in overcoming my failures in such a systematic hierarchy could largely be attributed to supportive supervisors, professors, friends, and most of all, my loving family. The trials and tribulations I faced in what had once seemed a downhill adventure in self-confidence and motivation did enact a toll upon my university studies, and yet, those very same experiences had served to strengthen me.
At the end of the day, my story may not be another’s. As such, I find it necessary in the current educational climate to find an alternative to written exams (at least in the context of university studies) in an effort to better represent and evaluate a student’s skills and knowledge. In my humble opinion, I would prefer to take the classical approach of the platonic academy where the emphasis towards knowledge and one’s academic mettle were proven through oral arguments and jousts that served to strengthen one’s ability to communicate and defend his opinions, as well as learn from that of others in what could be a collectively reinforcing experience.
I have had the opportunity to be involved in few such courses during my time at university, and have also found them to be the most rewarding. How to mold such an idea into a central gear in the current education system is a whole other problem in itself, and not one that I intend to discuss at this stage (though I do intend to come back to it soon enough).
Having said this, for now, I’m going to sit back, drink a cup of tea, enjoy the view (free of exams and assignments, but mostly a busy week catching up on research), and,
There he sits in his chair,
Ready to go through his checklist for the day,
Little does he know,
His mind has other games to play.
Experiments aside,
Its simulations for the time being,
To run the clock down,
Until lunch break comes calling.
Productivity is the motto at heart,
But thanks to an ample lack of sleep,
Such initial motivations,
Just fall apart.
Trying all he can and must,
To stay awake,
He takes a walk,
Maybe a short break.
Alighting onto the path of knowledge,
And hoping to get lost,
He picks up a review paper to go through,
Not aware his efforts will come at a high cost.
Page after page, with heavyset eyes,
He pores through the work,
Glancing every so often, tiringly, at the computer screen,
For any promising result, as would a wayward clerk.
To steady his periodic consciousness,
Intermittently, he is driven to source,
Those libraries of social media entertainment,
Youtube videos and Facebook of course.
Soon enough, work-hour comes to a close,
As the afternoon tide arrives,
And in its welcoming arms,
Life swings a surprise.
Lo and behold, he is struck by an epiphany,
A grasp at an ingenious thought,
Rushing, he notes down his idea,
Commending his mind on a battle well-fought.
Seeking the counsel of his Professor,
He wishes to share the excitement of his finding,
To his Jedi Master of sorts,
Having put to good use, his share of the funding.
And therein he meets an exhausted figure,
Forcing his will upon public grants all day,
Wishing nothing more than directing research,
That can bend to his singular way.
With only a few minutes at hand,
The padawan shares his thoughts,
The master applauding him,
On an idea well caught.
The day may have come to an end,
But the night remains,
For more experiments to begin,
And curiosity to retain.
For in science,
Results don’t come easy, as they say,
But procrastination, well done,
Can go a long way.
It has been a vivacious start to 2018, and I have been immersed in my studies over the last few weeks, teeing up for another set of courses this winter semester while putting the last touches on a research paper I intend to publish very soon.
Given my absence for so long, I was quite torn about what to post on my return but it didn’t take me long to realize that the answer sat in plain view. So today, I intend to provide all of you a brief glimpse of my daily life, and exactly what keeps me so busy. Let’s dig in.
We begin with the usual wake up call at 7 a.m in the morning, a goal which in the immediate outset of things provides for varying rates of success depending on the season. With winter, it is an issue of hustle, when the purpose of an alarm is lost over several snooze snippets, resulting in a hustle to get to classes on time. With summer, it is an issue of hassle, when the purpose of an alarm is moot, thanks to my bed bathing in sunlight in the early hours of 5 a.m. in the morning. Welcome to Edmonton!
Much like the amusing contrast of my forgetful friend Bucky Barnes’ season oriented fashion and epithet, the ritual of morning alarms in my life is largely hyperbolic in nature.
Now, assuming things do go as planned, I begin my day at the university around 9 a.m. in the morning, jogging along to my courses or engaging in research otherwise, with a finely conditioned but old package of a portable workspace aka my Lenovo G505s laptop. Ideally, I finish at 5 p.m. returning home to proceed with dinner, going to the gym, and engaging in my hobbies (writing, art, music) before heading to bed by around midnight.
Now, with that being said, we all know the obvious outcome: when it comes to life, things never go as planned…
I often relate my academic life to the act of cooking; I enjoy both equally. While I do love my Indian spices, I have no problem flirting with various cuisines from around the world. In the end, cooking is often about finding a delicate balance, and most importantly, maintaining it.
Unless I’m asking to be caught at the end of a Gordon Ramsay rant.
It is the same with my studies. Not one to be attached to a single subject of interest, I’m a fan of interdisciplinary science; a notion that parallels my current research on “hot electrons,” but more about that another time. Ultimately though, it is all about discipline, organization, and a strong ability to multi-task.
Thankfully, I do not lack in any of these categories but that doesn’t take away the usual stumbling blocks that appear every now and then. In that vein, with my PhD, it is all about juggling my degree requirements while simultaneously building towards my goals. This largely revolves around amassing a wealth of scientific publications, advancing my resume, cooking up original research, and last but not least, having fun while avoiding stress as much as possible. All in all, it is a business modeled around a philosophy of accretion. If you have the right balance, you’ve pretty much hit jackpot. Of course, this is not what happens in most cases, and so while I’m strung up like Anakin Skywalker dealing with an annoying Jedi Council,
two good friends of mine provide some much needed reminders and send me on my way,
Thus, I survive by running a strict diet of activities removed from my academic pursuits, and by this I mean indulging avidly in my long-term pursuit of becoming a writer/mangaka, not to mention catching up on all the reading and fun one tends to miss while at university.
Where does this cycle end? Truth is, in my case, it probably never will, and with time I’ve grown to enjoy it more than anything else. While the journey has its fair share of ups and down, at the end of the day, when I take a step back and think about it, my mind finds rest within the reality that it is no different from cooking a new recipe and making sure to have a healthy balance of spices (especially in the case of adding chilies, where one should only rub their eyes after having washed their hands…)
It took over an hour of suppressed pain before my eyes cleared up.
Keeping with that attitude, I hope to add to my list of goals, a steady accretion of weekly blog posts. Winter break oversaw a rapid increase in viewer traffic on my blog,
leaving me invigorated with new strategies and topics to engage all of you, my wonderful readers in what I hope will be a wonderful 2018! So, until next week, toodles!
Hello everybody! It’s been a busy week for me at the U. It’s great to be back in what is a break from a seemingly endless cycle of analyzing research papers mixed in with the occasional stupor of staring into empty space and contemplating the meaning of it all, in what is an effective cocktail of scientific education that is my PhD so far. In fact, the busy-ness of it all has molded into a slightly routine affair over the last eight years of my life in academia, and that’s exactly what I’m here to talk about today. Isn’t that great?
At the ripe age of 26, I already feel like an old man running through the wheeling seasons of the years. With each year’s passing, I bear witness and welcome the arrival of a fresh batch (and ready for the picking) of students jumping out of the proverbial frying pan that is high school and unknowingly (but optimistic nonetheless) into the fire that is university. At the same time, I bid farewell and sink into a boat of nostalgia on those good friends who continue onward in their singular adventures beyond university, and wherever they deem life should take them.
University, in many ways, can be likened to a pit-stop. It is not a necessary one, and for the ones who are offered the chance for it and take that opportunity, it may be a short or long-term visit. Some could even consider it to be a rite of passage while for others it may be a trial through fire or as my good friend Zuko would put it, an Agni Kai!
But beyond everything else, university is an experience. With every end that comes to pass, there is the beginning of something new right around the corner, and amidst a plethora of mixed emotions: laughter, sadness, anger, relief, melancholy, love…there endure the countless memories rendered complete in an unforgettable experience.
I’ve had my fair share of adventures over the last eight years, going back to 2009 and all the way to where I’m now in 2017, comprising my time at university. I can relate various stories in what would be a compendium of tales to share since then. But that would be too long of a story to tell so in my own liking as your “griot”, I will share what I can of what was (and to a certain degree still is) my life as a student at university.
YEAR 1: In search of “One Piece,” the grand adventure begins.
Embarking on an adventure was really what it was. I left my family, and set foot in Canada in 2009, beginning the first year of my studies at the University of Alberta. It all started with me getting lost on my first day of classes, and running about the streets trying to find my way to the right building, before eventually settling into a class only to realize it may not be the right one. An adventure that began with a misleading compass, but eventually finding the right pinch of curiosity to spur me onward to an endless horizon that sprang forth ahead of me in the dreams that I wished to seek. That was pretty much my first year: coming to terms with the fact that the journey was real.
YEAR 2: Facing my first COLOSSAL obstacle.
An adventure without any obstacle is quite boring, and as the second year of courses came around, I would finally face the first of my many challenges, mostly revolving around balancing my studies while working part-time. I would learn that the world is bigger than what I had previously thought. I would meet others of great intellect in my field, and at many times feel dwarfed by my own inabilities. But most of all, I would learn to never give up. No matter how colossal the problems felt in the heat of the moment, I would strive to be strong for the sake of achieving my dreams.
YEAR 3: Sinking In Self-Doubt
With the progression of every year, university grew into an endless stream of assignments, and I struggled to stay afloat. Bearing the brunt of my own personal struggles in an identity crisis that followed in the wake of a lost friend, I began to view the world differently. Where there were dreams and a never give up attitude, I began feeling the fatigue of it all, sinking into the tediousness, unable to connect with the original purpose that had brought me to university.
YEAR 4: Getting Back On My Feet By Letting Go
You can always count on family to be there for you when in trouble. I had my father on that day when I just needed to let go of it all, and while there wasn’t much to be said, I realized that the doubt that seemed to plague me was nothing more than an elusive catalyst that motivated me to keep pushing, and understand that there is nothing wrong with redefining myself and my dreams. I would soon find myself sitting in a packed auditorium of students waiting to receive my undergraduate degree. I can’t say I was happy. Things hadn’t gone the way I had hoped in the years prior, but the spirit still remained in me to keep seeking an answer beyond the persistent questions. University, in that manner, was as much about asking questions in class, as well as about myself, my dreams, and what really made me happy. I found my answers by letting go and taking a break.
YEAR 5: Trying Something New
Learning to let go was difficult, but I eventually got my way about doing it. Doing so, I redefined my road, trying something new in my life for a change. I found a partner to join in my adventure, meeting as we did in the crossroads. Moving forward to the future, I reassessed my dreams, thinking back to what I had lost and what I had gained through my experiences over the last four years, and finding new purpose in making my own path I decided to pursue graduate studies in a field and topic of my own interest.
YEAR 6 & 7: Reinvigorated Purpose
The following two years would pass in bliss as I engaged my Masters degree (which was VERY different from doing an undergraduate degree). There was a measure of intellectual freedom and space that followed with my graduate studies which was quite unlike the hectic lifestyle of my undergraduate years. I made the most of it. Of course there were ups and downs but for some reason things just didn’t seem as difficult as before. In retrospect, I could attribute this to the fact that I believed that nothing could seem to phase me worse than my own self-doubt, something that I had learned to overcome and master. With that being said, the road only stretched ever forward, inviting me to reach for the stars.
YEAR 8: From Our Last Summer To A Little Bit Of Everything
And so, I arrive at where I am now. Finding a particular love in writing, I push forward to a bigger goal to be a science communicator, and toward a long-term goal in retiring as a writer and mangaka. I chose my PhD to be a platform for that dream, and in the grand scheme of things that is what motivates me. In this vein, university, FOR ME, has essentially been a proving ground of sorts to find my place.
My journey here is yet to end, with three more years ahead during which I hope to finish my PhD degree. I look forward to it. I say that not because the story will end soon but rather with the realization that as long as I keep pursuing my dreams, wherever they may take me, the journey is itself the destination. With that thought, I find my own resolve to put my all into what I love, reminiscing every once in a while happily on the memories of our last summer, and enjoying a little bit of everything that life has to offer.
So, here’s a quick update to all my readers. After publishing my last post, I was parsing through my blog, when I noticed that while I had decided to write about meteor showers on my next post, I had done exactly that a few months back on August 21, 2017.
Baaakaaa….
I can attribute my forgetfulness to the recent bout of work and lack of sleep that has been following me over the last few days along with the happiness of dealing with the persistent paparazzi of my studies.
My new look over the last week or so…thanks to a lack of sleep and an intense regiment of writing a paper on my research.
Having said this, I’ve decided to scrap my prior idea and instead will publish a post later this week on the wonderful adventure that has been my life in university so far. Eight years and still running (hopefully the cycle will end in three more years when I intend to complete my degree), I’ve realized there is a lot I can share ranging a large spectrum of experiences!
My goal is to provide a window into the life of an academic, strictly from the humble viewpoint of a student. I hope to also share my own opinions and expound on the lessons I have learned along the way. For those among my readers who may also be contemplating on their chances in academia, I hope the post will provide much needed insight!
It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy all the while braving the storm that has been my PhD studies. While I’m only three months into my new degree (and a good 3.75 years remain until its completion), not surprisingly enough, I’m swamped with work. Thankfully, it is the enjoyable kind that comes with a research topic of my liking.
Nevertheless, it has been slightly frustrating that I haven’t had the chance to post as frequently as I would have wished on the blog.
But, the prodigal has now returned, and he does hope that he would be able to keep up with his blog posts as he deems it to be in the coming weeks. The brief respite that Halloween offered came with a sweet dose of playfulness as I carried out my annual responsibility in scaring the shit out of my girlfriend…
And deservedly getting my ass handed to me afterward.
Winter is most certainly here as well, the first snowfall caressing Edmonton in what began as a slush soup of snow rain that alerted me of its presence most distinctly through the water that slipped through the newly discovered gaping hole in my shoe. With only a few more weeks to go before classes end for the semester, and the age of final exams to come, I hope to put up a good number of posts that I have kept waiting for too long.
I will begin with keeping my word on the anecdote I wished to write on meteor showers. The Orionid showers occurred just a few weeks ago, and I’m looking forward to the Geminid showers which will hit in December. Apart from this, I will soon be pulling my book, A Little Bit Of Everything, out of Amazon KDP Select so that I may distribute it through other e-book publisher chains online. The book remains available on Amazon, and hopefully the redistribution will allow for further promotions in the future.
Having closed a chapter of my life with the completion of the book, I’m also working hard on setting the stage for a trifecta of stories that I’m hoping to work on over the next few years. Two of these stories will take the form of comics, for which I have been diligently taking art classes on human anatomy, while the last will be a novel, which remains in the back-burner of ideas, and a whole load of brainstorming.
It is pretty much a blank slate for now, but the emptiness of it evokes the certainty of greater ideas and explosive creativity.
So, for now, I leave you all with this short update as I busy myself with another late night of catching up on my art practice and contemplation on my stories. I hope to have another post up by the end of this week! Until then, toodles!
Last week was a throwback to my past as an undergraduate student when I pulled off my third all-nighter over the last eight years of studies at university. Now, an exam looms upon the horizon, followed by scores of assignments and research objectives to manage…Indeed, the gauntlet has been thrown, and I have made my decision…
While I may not necessarily have an official fellowship to assist me, I take heart in that I have my fellow classmates and friends who shall also suffer in this war with me.
Bound to this confounding cycle of…
I find solace in my pensive reverie…So, having said that, hi everyone!
It has been a busy few days, but I’m hoping to regain my bearings once I complete my midterm exam this week. Looking ahead, I will be posting on my experiences so far in independent publishing having recently published my second book: A Little Bit Of Everything.
September was also a month of several delightful surprises, not to mention, my first viewing of the Northern Lights (which occurred during a casual walk home one night from the superstore). As awesome as it was to observe the celestial event, which was surprisingly clear despite the light pollution in the city that night, I plan to write a small anecdote on the phenomenon itself touching base with my general passion for astronomy.
I now leave you all with this short update as I once again embark on the Sisyphean expedition that my PhD research has become, not to mention the general course of assignments and course work to follow. It is certainly the calm before the storm as I prepare for my midterm but with a creeping doubt where I’m,
As the bells of exam halls toll,
Correction: Mid-semester, the war will truly come to an end at the end of the semester.
I shall fight the good fight, and do my best so that I may soon reengage all of you, my fellow readers and friends, at The Pensive Reverie with some delightful tales, amid auroras and published books, of what has been a beautiful fall season.
So, after a week of thoughtful contemplation amid myriad deadlines, I’m excited to finally post my discussion “On the Nature of Knowledge.” I contested two methods of approach in presenting this topic: one that is grounded in philosophy, and the other that is inspired from my personal experience as a student. Ultimately, I’ve decided to stick with the latter as it would be consistent with how I’ve addressed most of the topics posted on this blog. For anyone wishing to tackle the same topic from a philosophical perspective, check out epistemology (the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides an awesome introduction on the subject).
Our discussion will be divided into three separate parts dealing with the following questions:
(1) What is knowledge?
(2) What is knowledge from a student’s perspective?
(3) What is the purpose of knowledge?
Seems simple enough!
My objective today will be to share my personal experience and growth over the last seven years of my undergraduate and graduate studies, during which I actively and repeatedly engaged these questions. I’m well aware of the various generalizations that can be made in answering these questions, but my opinions will converge and revolve around the viewpoints I’ve accepted in my personal journey to discover those same answers as a student. Let’s begin!
What is knowledge?
I believe knowledge can be defined via three categories: personal, factual, and action-based knowledge.
Personal knowledge revolves about the knowledge gained by acquaintance with the objects, the events, and the people in one’s environment. Having just arrived in Canada for my undergraduate studies, the foundation of my life was built around the expectations and experiences I had with my family living in India, Egypt, and Sudan. Commencing my studies at the University of Alberta while living in student residence, working part-time and volunteering in various activities, my personal growth as an individual continued as I mingled and became familiar with an alien environment. My new-found freedom allowed me to fully experience and question my individuality, a process that would culminate in my identity crisis several years down the road (one that I have thankfully resolved). Knowledge, in this sense, is acquainted with my familiarity toward objects in my environment as well as the delegation of my recognition to said objects, and was highly influential in defining my identity and my decisions. Altogether, personal knowledge is very much a book in progress in our individual lives. Its measures and ends are dictated by our environments, personal motivations, and growth while actively influencing all three of those aspects.
Action-based knowledge is the knowledge of how to do something. This would involve one’s abilities to do something, like driving a car or starting a campfire.
On the other hand, factual knowledge, as is obvious, is the knowledge of facts. Action-based knowledge is different from factual knowledge. One may know the theory behind driving a car, while not actually knowing how to drive a car. Factual knowledge is evident in both action-based, and personal knowledge. With personal knowledge, in order to speak with others, one must know how to communicate. One doesn’t necessarily know a person just by meeting them, one must also know a few things about them. Similarly, with action-based knowledge, one must know certain facts about driving, like the motion of the car with respect to actions on the steering wheel, to assist and help them actually drive the car.
Despite this, factual knowledge is alone not enough. Personal knowledge involves the need for action-based knowledge that helps an individual acquire the necessary skills to interact with his/her environment, and action-based knowledge may require some factual knowledge, but that same factual knowledge cannot amount towards action-based knowledge. In fact, one could say that there is no definitive standard of connection between these three categories of knowledge, seeing how much they intermesh. For the philosophy lovers, epistemology deals largely with the views of factual knowledge.
What is knowledge from a student’s perspective?
How does this all come together for a student? Well, one of the main reasons we go to school is to cultivate our knowledge and understanding of the world. At university, this may largely be oriented by our aspirations on a field that would preferably model our future careers. I say “may” as I believe the purpose of higher studies does not have to primarily revolve about one’s career or prospective choice of employment (this in itself, leads to the crucial discussion on the structures of education or educational systems).
Have…To…Keep…Going….
As a student, much of our time at university involves absorbing the factual knowledge before actually implementing them in the real world. Our action-based knowledge is attested to our success with such implementations. It is pretty similar to the notion of the scientific method, where theory precedes experiment in a repetitive cycle. This is where we also learn the difference between the static process of remembering knowledge versus the dynamic process of applying said knowledge. This is at the core of our ability to learn and interact with our environment, and is a social behavior whose roots are sown in our evolution as a species.
Factoring on to this is the personal knowledge that every individual inhibits. Being a student, you’re part of a community, one that we may or may not socialize with (each with its own share of circumstances). Putting aside the knowledge we gain from our courses, the personal knowledge we exhibit provides for the competitive play of our social lives from networking, to the establishment of our status, while satiating our thirst and drive for recognition.
All of which now leads us to ask, what is the purpose of knowledge in general?
What is the purpose of knowledge?
Personally, to this day, I believe an individual’s knowledge is characterized not only by their ideas, but also how they act upon them. The question on the purpose of knowledge derives greatly from the means of education an individual may seek, which by itself, is an even bigger discussion.
I’ve come to recognize how influential the methods utilized to propagate knowledge at an academic institution can be on its community (teachers and students alike). After my four years of undergraduate studies, I was spent, and in many ways had to rediscover my personal creativity and motivation. Following a gap year, I pursued graduate studies, which I just recently completed. Looking back at my experience, I must say that a large part of my journey also had its run of the mill circumstances surrounding my identity crisis, but I cannot deny that it came with its share of new and enlightening perspectives involving my personal opinions on the educational systems of modern-day academic institutions.
What is the purpose of knowledge? I believe it is what it is, for every one of us, however we wish to see it.
If there is one attribute to my personality that I have always been proud of, it would be my undying curiosity, and endless thirst for knowledge. In my life, this has changed from a wish to understand the world, to sharing said knowledge, and to contributing my own by enhancing the source of said knowledge. The Pensive Reverie is in fact a personification of my desire to share my knowledge, as an individual, to the world. Ultimately, as Francis Bacon put it, “Knowledge is power” but I also believe what we do with said power defines the object for each and every individual.
Just wanted to send out a brief update on the topic I have decided to discuss for my next post. It took a few days of deliberation and careful thought, and given my recent completion of graduate studies, I felt it would be ideal to discuss On the nature of knowledge.
I’m well aware of the various intricacies and the large volume of literature dedicated to this subject (it is in fact a field called epistemology.) As usual, my treatment of the topic will revolve around my personal experiences albeit with some casual references to quotations and critical analyses provided by professional savants.
I wish to focus, in particular, on the role of knowledge, and how it is integrated and implemented in current educational trends at schools and universities. As an aspiring PhD student, and as an autodidact, my views on education vary from the classroom to my personal work-space at home. I have often questioned the purpose of the knowledge that I have accumulated throughout my life, both in social and academic contexts, and how to appropriately and selectively apply said knowledge in my daily adventures as a foundation towards a healthy lifestyle. Such a thought has also widely influenced my methods of finding means to an end when it comes to my dreams to be a multi-talented and well-rounded individual.
Having successfully completed another major phase of education in my Masters degree, I felt it would be entertaining to discuss a question that has been quite significant in my daily life, and is pretty much a common occurrence in almost everyone’s daily lives and careers.
I should have the post up by the end of this weekend. Until then, toodles!
The Pensive Reverie 