A Few Things I Wish I'd Learnt at Briercrest

Today I wrote my first short reading response for a U of M class. I wrote about articles on Edward Said's Orientalism, and while writing I started thinking about a few things that I wish I'd learnt about while at Briercrest.

Here they are in order of importance:

Anything about Derrida:

I've heard the name Derrida mentioned about as much as I've heard people talk about United Church theology--it happens but when it does things move on quickly as though you were talking about how much chest hair you've recently been growing and then a girl walks by...

Anything about Foucault:

Except for maybe the odd time from JSP, A.B. (either), or JF, I'm not sure if I've ever heard anything about Foucault. He creeps around in that sketchy area between philosophy and history that you don't take the bus to late at night. I think since I've been at the UofM I've heard him mentioned at least 5 or 6 times though -- after this maybe I'll wikipedia him and get the relevant details.

More about Marx:

I feel like I have a decent grasp of Marx from a few Bcrest courses and my time in Russia but there are a few Marxistish profs at the UofM who really focus on it. It would bring a tear of joy to J. Wollf's face. I feel like I know Marx but it would have been nice to read another author or two that interprets history Marxistly.

Suffixes that can be added to Marx:

Self-explanatory.

More discussion of Community beyond B-crests boundaries:

Community was a huge focus while I studied at B-crest, but there isn't too much talk about what community should look like once you are outside of the actual community of Caronport. I suppose it's kind of assumed that community will already be established when you move back to where you are from, but there is a hugely different dynamic when moving from a Christian community of learning to a secular one. This was addressed a bit when people talked about problems Briercrest grads face after graduation, but outside of the few alumni events and publications it seems that proving and understanding the community at Briercrest was more important than transitioning communities afterwards.

Who wrote Little Red:

Graduates should be given one of those folders with CLASSIFIED written on it with a piece of paper inside listing the Little Red writers. I've always wanted to get an envelope with CLASSIFIED on it.

When thinking about these I also thought of a list of a few things I'm glad I learnt while at Briercrest--maybe that will be the next entry.