Word: unfamiliar
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Adam Kovacevich's column, "From Doggishness to Discomfort" (Opinion, March 1) is a very narrowminded and ill-supported view of academic life at Harvard. To assume that the "scientists in Mendelssohn's course and Jews in Harris' course" have "frittered away a valuable opportunity to explore unfamiliar intellectual realms" is to assume that the average Harvard student is incapable of being driven to a higher level of understanding through already-familiar realms of academia. A much more attractive and positive assumption would require us to abandon the view that Harvard students always look for the easy way out and sometimes...
...sure, for those scientists in Mendelsohn's course and Jews in Harris' course, there is much to be learned from a historical approach to science and one's ancestral history, respectively. In choosing these courses over others, however, students have frittered away a valuable opportunity to explore unfamiliar intellectual realms...
...dwell on the culture or field with which you're already acquainted, but instead seek out that which is most unfamiliar. Don't become enamored of your own world view but instead humble yourself in the face of the vast scholarship to which you will soon lose access. In your academic work, be quick to contemplate, slow to conclude and eager to traverse unfamiliar territory...
...choose, like many do, to reason with yourself that it is best to strike a balance each semester between the familiar and the unfamiliar, be prepared for the regret you will feel in a few years after taking intellectual shortcuts on your way to your Harvard degree. Instead, take the long view over the short view, grit your teeth and be vigilant in seeking out discomfort. Adam R. Kovacevich '99 is a government concentrator in Quincy House. His column appears on alternate Mondays...
...Harvard run was an orgy of transitionbaskets and quick-developing post plays at a paceforeign to the Crimson for much of the season. Thetwo teams scored 12 points in a stretch of 2:07,as relatively unfamiliar names like SharonNunamaker and Kelly Kinneen peppered thescoresheet...