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Home My WebLink AboutClinton News Record, 2015-09-02, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, September 2, 2015 Uri `11 W' www.clintonnewsrecord.com Clinton News Record PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 53 Albert St. P.O. Box 39 Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519) 482-3443 www.clintonnewsrecord.com rp] POSTMEDIA MARIE DAVID Group Advertising Director - Grey Bruce Huron Division 519376-2250ext514301 or 510364-2001 ext531024 NEIL CLIFFORD Advertising Director neil.clifford@sunmedia.ca ri, ,..„..,_ ...,.. _. 3 LAURA BROADLEY Reporter . k. — clinton.reporter@sunmedia.ca DAWN JOHNSTON lic Sales Representative -• clinton.ads@sunmedia.ca TERESA SMITH ,--1 Front Office clinton.classifieds@sunmedia.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 YEAR $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GS1) 2YEAR $95.00 (90.48+4.52GST) SENIORS 60 WEEKS $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 120 WEEKS $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged but that balance of advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a Typographic error advertising goods or services at a wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Ad- vertising is merely an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn at any time. The Clinton News -Record is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproducing purposes. Publications Mail Agreement No.40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 53 Albert St., Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519)482-3443 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada Member of the Canadian Community C1Clc1Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association opinion Today's students could learn from ancient Greeks Brace yourselves, a new school year is upon us, and with it, a strenuous climb up the steep slope of academic achievement. Soon enough, many of us stu- dents will find ourselves embat- tled in a swirling blizzard of lec- tures and assignments, with fatigue headaches and procrasti- nation -induced panic attacks as our teacher-sherpas throw more intellectual baggage at us than we can handle. In a month or two, midterm season will leave us on our knees, silently praying for mercy from the pagan gods of the R -Score. All too often, academic apocalypse ensues, an avalanche of bad exams burying our seeking hearts. Hear me out fellow students, I am here to bring good news. Conquering the imposing peaks of knowledge does not have to be that painful. Let's put aside our modern #obsessions for a minute and take a long look back. Way, way back. Back to ancient Greece. I have always been fascinated by ancient Greek culture. The idea that it laid down a body of knowledge and ways of thinking for pretty much the rest of history is amazing. And in the process, the Greeks gave us something much more valuable that is often overlooked — something that may exactly be what us ailing stu- dents need. Let's examine Aristotle. Why did he write his Poetics, Rhetoric, Politics and a whole bunch of other works when it clearly didn't make him any money? Obviously, this is a humorously ignorant question. It's something that would be met with the immediate reaction: how dare you even remotely consider the possibility that the respectable Aristotle was motivated by some- thing as shallow and awfully materialistic as monetary gain? On the other hand, as all those Facebook exam memes testify, we students only duti- fully absorb information because, at heart, we want to get high marks. This follows the assumption that somehow, someday, all these stellar grades will lead to a high -flying career. In the meantime, everything is boring, everything is hellish drudgery, everything is mind - numbing cramming. Welcome to higher education in the 21st century. Education wasn't always meant to be a necessary precur- sor to the job market. Through- out history, until roughly a cen- tury ago, kids who were rich enough to gain access to higher education did not do so to pre- pare for a rewarding career. Core subjects included Latin, Greek and Classics. They learned little that would have had much practical use; rather, the point was to gain interesting insights, transform themselves and change their world view. Knowledge was assimilated for its own sake, slowly, in the fash- ion of the Greek thinkers of long ago. Now, we read our textbooks because that's what we're sup- posed to do. We might not even like the material or even remotely care about a class, but we do it anyway. No wonder so many among us feel stuck in a state of perpetual complaint against our workload. The ancients had the ability to be inspired and to act on that inspiration. We have lost it. It is high time to bring this kind of fascination back to our schoolwork and our lives in general. Let's stop reading an intimidating stack of articles on post -structuralist interpreta- tions of pre -Victorian literature because we imperatively need to bring up that horrid mark our last essay completely bombed: but let's do it because Foucault is awesome. Learn because you love to, not because you have to. In these times of widespread student grumbling, heroic lev- els of sleep deprivation and stress wrecked souls, a healthy dose of nerdiness may do us good and save us a lot of heartbreak. It's time to stop climbing, sit down and admire the surround- ing landscape. Diamond Yao is a student at Marianopolis College in Mon- treal. She lives in Laval. This col- umn first appeared in the Mon- treal Gazette. NEWSPAPERS COVER ALL THF MAJOR SUBJECTS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The News Record welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include a daytime phone number for verification purposes. Letters can be sent care of the Internet at clinton.reporter@sunmedia.ca, sent via fax at 519-482-7341 or through Canada Post care of The Edi- tor, P.O. Box 39, Clinton, ON NOL 1LO. CLINTON NEWS RECORD - HOURS OF OPERATION MONDAY: 9:00 - 5:00 • TUESDAY: - CLOSED • WEDNESDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • THURSDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • FRIDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • SATURDAY & SUNDAY: - CLOSED ADVERTISING DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 2:00 • PHONE 519-482-3443 • FAX: 519-482-7341 www.clintonnewsrecord.com