h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sitting here on a Saturday night, one day into wisdom-tooth-removal post-op. From what l can see so far, the surgical proceedure itself hasn't been much worth it (swelling, bruising, disorientation, pain in exchange for removal of a few teeth who were quite content where they were and weren't bothering anyone a bit, minding their own buisiness). But some of the drugs have. Heck, l'm on straight ibuprofen (not cut with any other drugs at all, mind) that is so strong it causes drowsiness. The pills are about an inch long.
Where are these when one has a headache?
Anyway.
Earlier this week l registered for fall classes at school -- AACC, the local community college. Also known as "UCLA -- Upper College of Lower Arnold (the city/suburb in which it is located), "AACC -- Any A**hole Can Come" (excuse the quote, it's direct from my old history teacher at high school, 'cept he didn't use the bowlderized version), and plain old "A squared C squared."
lt's not quite the college l wanted to attend. l was trying for Reed, a small college in Portland, Oregon, which has a collection of uber-brilliant intellectuals, potheads, all-around interesting people, and its own nuclear reactor (located, naturally, in the Psychology building. Well, it -is- a small college...). However, l didn't get in, because, primarily, l am a lazy and useless slacker.
l next applied to St. John's College, in Annapolis. They're reknowned for taking students who haven't done well in a traditional school setting (any guesses as to why l might find this ethic appealing?) but who still have an abiding interest in the practice of education.
They informed me, in no uncertain terms, that l was not intellectually equal to the demands their school would place on me, bid me good day, and basically declared me scholar non grata on school grounds.
"Yes, we've read the eleven-page thesis we require you send us as part of your evaluation process...yes, we realize it's taken you several months and a great deal of editing to complete...and we still, after reading your work, remain unimpressed. Now run along and play -- there's a good little cretin -- and leave us to our Ovid."
Sigh. l've read half the books which make up their curriculum. But l suppose they know what they want, and l suppose it's for the best.
l'm not looking too much forward to next year. The college is large, most of the classes are lecture, and there's no sense of community, no basic love, l think, of the material underlying the process of learning. Not that l can complain and be anything but a hypocrite. l'm not there for pleasure, for the sake of learning, either. l, like everyone, am merely there to build a respectable GPA and transfer elsewhere.
Sigh. l feel like such a whore. l've become the people l hated in high school -- the people who worked sheerly for grades, for external validation, who didn't care if their essays were gibberish as long as they rated them the marks they wanted, didn't care if they understood and appreciated the works of Renaissance art they studied, so long as they could spew out the dates, the artists, and the relevant bits of memorized information when needed, didn't appreciate the beauty of a geometric proof or the infinity of the Universe or the symmetry of physics as long as they passed their tests.
l've become what l hated, or l will very shortly, and if l ever want to find a school where l will be happy, l will have to commit these egriegious sins first, and l hate it all and the educational, ethical and employment culture of this country and this period of time and l believe l will take another Perkiset.

Can't there be a middleground between grade-whore and interested student? Especially if you take classes in subjects you're interested in. Even if AP English was sort of a cop-out for that, far less interesting than it should have been. But, if you enjoy learning, even in such a suffocating environment, you might extract some relief from what you learn. Some of my classes in high school were like that, like AP Bio.

AP Bio, really? Even with the backbreaking labour and the psychotic Mr May? (the martinet-slash-Jerry-Springer-guest-Denny lookalike? Kidding, kidding...but it was unnerving to see, l tell you...)

l may not have -been- there...but l always heard the stories...