2017年12月1日

While I introduce the painfully beautiful concept of “choice” to all incoming students and at the beginning of every school year, students may not understand its magic until much later.  They are happy that they can have choices, but they are also bewildered on what the consequences are of their choices. In fact, this sweet agony follows every individual, as long as there are choices to make. Different research projects average the number of choices or decisions an adult makes every day at more than 30,000 items. These, of course, include some mechanical choices and decisions like: tie for work and dessert with coffee.

 

In every course selection season, students are clearly confused with what to specialize in: humanities or sciences. There is a noticeable absence of interest in some subjects, which attract a small crowd; the small number seems to be an open secret, not because of the insufficient marketing work the teachers produce, but because these subjects tend to be on ideology, and on intangible concepts. Students take home beliefs from these subjects, rather than a “substantial product”.  Students might worry that after studying in these classes, their only choice of work might appear invisible.  But all knowledge stemmed from philosophy; the word “philosophy” came from Greek, which means the love of wisdom, that is, the love for thinking, beliefs, and ideas. Knowledge is supposed to be intangible.

 

Take the subject history as an example. History offers factual stories of what happened, and informs future generations on the mistakes or strengths of these events. History does not come in a random order, but quite a definite cycle. My least favorite topics in history are wars, Great Depression in the 1930s, and any events on invention-go-wrong which harm civilizations, creating living dead casualties.

 

No matter how and what you choose, there are consequences, both good and bad. That is what history teaches us. It is more important that when you are asked to make a choice, you get all information you need. The informed choice that you make will always be the best at the time it is made. If you are still unsure and want to leave this choice topic now, you can choose to do something else: 

 

Find 13 oxymoron phrases in this passage.

 

 

Anson Yang