the tutorial

One will seldom go wrong if one attributes extreme actions to vanity, average ones to habit, and petty ones to fear. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

The quote from Nietzsche was at the top of the first of many peer-reviewed journal articles I’ve been reading, and I think it interestingly speaks to my education.

I’m not sure if it’s vanity or fear that drives me to do my work. I’m not sure if my work is an extreme effort because I think I can achieve great things or if it’s simply excessive concern for what amounts, and perhaps will amount, to nothing. Either way, I push on.

Tutorials

For part-time students, such as my compatriots and myself in the OPUS program, our term grades are based on our tutorials. For each tutorial we prepare a paper between six and ten pages long based on a reading list that literally cannot be exhausted provided by our tutors. We theoretically draw from the  centuries of wisdom that inform the prompt, which is certainly above our heads, as we write. Each essay necessarily our magnum opus. We then submit the essay to the professor, often 24 hours in advance to give them adequate time to thrash our attempt at ideas. At the tutorial, we meet one-on-one to defend our paper. Sometimes the professor lectures for a while on some related material.
So far, everyone has done fairly well, according to the professors. However, those same professors duly note their awareness that we are not real Oxford students (they still say they grade us the same way they do Oxford students, which perhaps does not bode well for our GPAs).
We have a primary tutorial and a secondary tutorial. The primaries are more intense and last a bit longer (mine lasts seven weeks, so seven sessions and seven essays). The secondary tutorials are less intense and shorter (mine lasts four weeks, but my tutor is shooting for five essays). Note the [intended] total of 12 tutorials— everyone ends up with 12 but some go eight and four or six and six.

The ethos is entirely different, however. The point is to learn how to think alongside depth of knowledge rather than just cover breadth of knowledge as in the states. I don’t know how well this works as I’ve only had a couple tutorials, but I’m excited for retrospective recognition of progress.

My days look something like wakeupeatbreakfast  read  for  three  hours  eatlunchwalkintotownfindaspotinthelibrary  read  for  four  hours  getgrocerieswalkhomemakedinnerfallasleep. Sometimes the three hour reading turns to writing, and on Mondays I stay home and write from 9-5.

Things:
Mailboxes are lovingly termed pigeon holes.

The lunch served by my college's cafeteria the other day was, among other choices, lamb roasted with seasoned vegetables and potatoes with a side of fresh (more or less) green beans. It was excellent. What's more, this cost £3, or  about $5. I'm not missing APU's cafeteria.