University.
I don’t know if this is me either being a) naive to what University is actually about, b) me going to a not-so-amazing University, or c) having rubbish lecturers, but I don’t feel that I know half of what I should about the classical world.
Seneca, Suetonius, Tacitus, Imperial Rome, Roman Republic, Darius. These are classical aspects I am aware of, but I literally have no idea what they’re all about.
I understand University is largely about going out and doing the work yourself; but I imagined that I’d be taking four/five modules a term and knowing so much more than I actually do. In reality, I’ve done three/four modules a term, and I still don’t know much at all- in particular with the Roman side. It’s an embarrassing thing for me to admit. Yes, I am studying for a degree in Classical Civilisation, but no, I don’t know what Alexander the Great actually accomplished, what dates Augustus reigned, or what Plato’s main philosophy was. I am now self-teaching myself, such as reading a JStor article every day and getting books out of the library. But I always thought that the lecturers would give us more primary texts to read, and grill us a bit more on it all. They’ve just kinda…left it to us, as if they’re saying, “find your own enthuiasm, we’re busy”.
In my own time, I am now reading things that we haven’t even touched or had the opportunity to touch in modules, and the more I learn that I didn’t know before, the more I grow afraid of the thought, are we learning enough in lectures/reading? It’s great that I’m going out and learning this for myself. But why isn’t there more availability of what we learn?
This is an uber-geeky statement, but for each module, we only have one essay and one exam. Yeah, it’s hard work that we have about five essays and exams to do a year, but as I’m studying (and paying) towards a degree, I want MORE. I want three essays, two exams per module- REALLY DRILL IT INTO US.
So I want to help others, and I think I do perhaps want to become a teacher/lecturer of Classics/ancient history, to show how its done. I hate the thought of a group of pupils being looked down upon by a boringly monotone teacher; that’s just not how you learn in the 21st century. I don’t want others to panic about it all as I have, and I want to help them discover about the past in the most intriguing way possible.
