Tuesday 26 January 2010

A Special Kind of Dilema

I now find myself in what I have termed 'A Special Kind of Dilema'. The Dilema in question is not really special at all but I found it to be a much better title than simply'I am very lazy'.

The problem orginates from the very reason I started the blog in the first place the reasons for which are outlined in my first post Everyones Favourite Comrade. However this is where the problem began. It was at this point that I was unemployed and had given up on looking for employment due to my iminent return to education. That in itself was one of the motivating factors behind the blog, as I had not had to write in a structured way since dropping out during my A-levels in 2004.

Upon begining University my blog went very quiet and until a few days ago hadn't been updated since October! I felt I had no need to in someways I guess and in other ways as I am generaly lazy I just didn't bother as I was begining to write essays and so was already back into the habit of writing through this anyway.

However the university setting so far has caused a lot of frustration on my part. This is partly self-inflicted due to my laziness but also because of my distain for the education system. I chose to study Sociology hoping to get a lot out of it,as I did previously studying at both GCSE and A-level (which is where I came into contact with marxism and the Socialist Party). However a number of factors it has not led up to my expectation so far and those factors in no particular order are.

  1. The production line layout of education, while i find many of the lectures interesting I find myself at the end of 1 hour thinking "is that it! just 1 hour on the topic and we come back next week to do it all over again" and this is compounded by the fact that it is geared towards answering specific essay questions which I have found very restrictive in the main, and become disinterested in the subject because it is not the subject that I want to write about.
  2. Seminars- hate is too strong a word to describe this but I have grown to dislike many of my seminars. Not because I do not like the concept of seminars but because it doesn't seem to be working. Instead of a discussion amongst the students more often than not it becomes a disussion between myself and a lecturer with maybe one or two others joining.
  3. Complacency-I have become very complacent with much of the work I have handed in because of the advantages I have over many of my peers having studied sociology for 4 years previously and been an active marxist for 7 years now I appear to  have the edge over the others straight away. Whilst this is true and my grades so far have reflected this my writing style could do with much improvement and my sociological knowledge outside the realms of marxism are less than desirabe.
  4. Most importantly and for all the reasons above I have become lazy and lack drive, putting in little effort or time into assignments which has been aided incredibly by my laziness, and although up until now my grades  have been good I can't sustain this forever and neither will it  improve my understanding.

So after recently reading Blogging, Academia and Sociology over at A Very Public Sociologist it got me thinking about how I can rectify this and how blogging can play a part. It got me thinking and the answer was simple. If the lecture subject is interesting blog about it! If the essay questions are too restrictive, as well as writing the essay, blog away free of the restrictions of the question itsef! If the seminars are simply a back and forth between me and a lecturer then blog about the topic hoping a discussion will follow free from the parameters of the amount of people sat in the room (although restricted to whoever looks at the blog) I hope by doing this and reaching out into the world of political and sociological blogs I will be able to over come my complacany force myself to put the effort and research in which is so lacking and can be noted by my last blog entries Youth Culture which was simply one of my essays I uploaded onto the blog. Although I got a first from it, It is quite evident that it lacks so much. I hope that by putting either some of my work into the public domain or writing articles specificaly for the blog it will improve my work over all and overcome my laziness and complacancy and everything else which I have become dissatisfied with.

So I guess the point I have been getting at is that along with the original 'mission statement' I put forward for this blog. Which is admittedly a very broad scope.

"What topics will this blog cover, well its a political blog but as capitalist society effects every aspect of culture and human interaction in someway that means that this blog will be open to covering any subject matter."

But now my aim is not only to reboot that up but to delve more into sociological aspects as wel and to update much more frequently time permitting.

2 comments:

  1. What you propose to do for your undergraduate studies is *exactly* how I would go about things if I had just entered university today. When I was an undergrad it would be the case I turn up, make notes, and probably not think about them again until essay or exam time (though in my defence, I did read loads of books inbetween!) I think blogging is an excellent way of "writing up" your notes and reflecting on them. Plus lecturers are always happy to read an essay by someone who can write :)

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  2. So far far my experience has been pretty much the same if not worse. While thats the general case one of my lecturers in particular is crap, very little sociology in any of her lecturers so ive just switched of completely so in there haven't taken any notes

    In other modules I have done just what you have described though, take the notes and then forget about it, which isnt really helpful.

    Another point though, from my limited time as a blogger its obvious that while maintaining a blog Im more likely to read other blogs, and as an infrequent reader of your blog over the years I can see it being a particularly useful tool for me.

    Sociological from a marxist perspective written by an activist. What better resourse for a Sociology undergrad and marxist activist!

    Any blogs in a similiar vain that you know of that could be useful?

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