Journal 2
In ‘Kenyon Commencement Speech”, David Wallace critics the tendency of commencement speeches genre avoid to talk about American adult life. They have the tendency of being full of little didactic stories about banalities rather than emphasizes on the student’s mind that education is learning and choosing what and how to think about. Wallace argues that teaching how to think is the “short cut” of learning how to control over what we think. He insists that our basic orientation on adult life has been take over for our “default settings “ that has controlled what we see and how to act in front of every different situation. He points out that we can adjusted or altered our natural default setting in order to be well adjusted that does not involves either knowledge or intellect. According to the author well-adjusted means to decide consciously what is really meaningful and essential. Wallace concludes that the” real freedom “is being educated and awareness of what is essential on our lives.
I agree with the author’s observations about our default settings that make our life more difficult since we are not able to see more than just our own desires. It takes our common life without even being consciousness of that. He states that ‘the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master”. Wallace’s point of view claims that we cannot exercise control of how to think in adult life. We cannot help it. We are just captives of our arrogance. We are just aware that we are the center of the universe. He states that learn to be less arrogant should be one of the most important goals of teaching. When he mentioned the story of the two guys in a bar in Alaska, we understand that this is the same experience can mean two different things to two different people. They just follow their basic orientation or default setting. But, also their religious dogmatism does not allow them to see any other choices. Wallace reaffirms that the solution is to be “well adjusted”, but this is not a ‘piece of cake’. Well-adjusted is a process that includes learning how to take control over our basic instincts and desires, be conscious of what is really important or not. It’s our choice to look differently any situations, care about other people feelings. I agree Wallace’s view that the real value of a real education is being able to understand how to think. Think about what is so real and essential or what is unnecessary to analyze. For example, he mentioned the story in the supermarket. We really think we are the only person in this long line that is tired, annoyed and miserable for being there. I do not think so. We can follow our default setting to be miserable or being “well adjusted to think about how happy the cashier is going to be if we are nice and polite with her.
I agree with the author’s observations about our default settings that make our life more difficult since we are not able to see more than just our own desires. It takes our common life without even being consciousness of that. He states that ‘the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master”. Wallace’s point of view claims that we cannot exercise control of how to think in adult life. We cannot help it. We are just captives of our arrogance. We are just aware that we are the center of the universe. He states that learn to be less arrogant should be one of the most important goals of teaching. When he mentioned the story of the two guys in a bar in Alaska, we understand that this is the same experience can mean two different things to two different people. They just follow their basic orientation or default setting. But, also their religious dogmatism does not allow them to see any other choices. Wallace reaffirms that the solution is to be “well adjusted”, but this is not a ‘piece of cake’. Well-adjusted is a process that includes learning how to take control over our basic instincts and desires, be conscious of what is really important or not. It’s our choice to look differently any situations, care about other people feelings. I agree Wallace’s view that the real value of a real education is being able to understand how to think. Think about what is so real and essential or what is unnecessary to analyze. For example, he mentioned the story in the supermarket. We really think we are the only person in this long line that is tired, annoyed and miserable for being there. I do not think so. We can follow our default setting to be miserable or being “well adjusted to think about how happy the cashier is going to be if we are nice and polite with her.
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