Learning is fun!

Last Friday myself and 11 other Bump extra credit whores took time out of our precious weekend to listen to Alice sing about her fall down the rabbit hole and the ensuing psychedelic adventures. Unfortunately, yet somewhat expectedly, the theatre was sold out. Alas, they we were, 12 (half of whom were turned down the day before- apparently the college senate meeting is not a tradition of Ramadan) teenage kids stood up by a school project. So, we did what any rational person would do: we decided to make our own damn rabbit hole and plunge into it. Translation: we went out to eat. As we sat at our table at Ez’s, conversing over our plates of pizza, quesadillas, hamburgers, and the best freaking milkshakes ever, I couldn’t help but think of how truly lucky and honored I am to be in the Plan II program. 

To be honest, during the first few weeks of school, I wasn’t really sure why I chose (or was accepted into) the Plan II program. It offers no boost in GPA for incentive, as do

es the AP program in high school. Sure, it’s prestigious, but that is somewhat difficult to claim since there is an excess of those who have no idea what the program is, or that it even exists. I have honestly had someone ask me why I was denied admission into Plan I.  When asked to describe it, all I can usually come up with is that it’s like liberal arts honors… sort of.

However, between the bites and slurps and laughter and unraveling strands of each other’s personalities on that Friday night, I began to truly realize why I made the decision I did. My thoughts were finally, as William Butler Yeats was cited as saying in Frank Tuohy’s “Yeats”, “hammered into unity,” (51). We collectively came to the conclusion that there is definitely a Plan II kid. Though I don’t sincerely grasp just who that is, I like the idea that I’m surrounded by them- the best of the best, at least according to admissions-and not just because of the title or name recognition, but because being in such astute company, as well as the competition it breeds, will make me a better educated person. We are, as John Henry Newman said in “The Idea of a University”, “an assemblage of men [and women], zealous for their own sciences, and rivals of each other,” (X309). We all want to achieve a high level of success, and we all want to stand on the mountaintop; yet, at the same time we still are willing to teach one another, to produce parity. What I believe makes us so unique from other students is that, while we each have our own specific interests and aspirations, we are united in our passion for learning. That is the real incentive for being a part of this selective collection. While our peers and family may not understand the motive or logic behind taking a World Literatu

re class when one is a business or biology major, we are immersed in those who do. We are those to whom the essence of knowledge “is not merely a means to something beyond it, or the preliminary of certain arts into which it naturally resolves, but an end sufficient to rest in and to pursue for its own sake,” as Peter Flann stated in his 1984 address to the UT faculty (X306). We are those who strive to be more than mindless drones applying facts fed to us in a classroom for some ultimately unfulfilling salary, more than a person who is exclusively left-brained. This can be a challenging concept to some, especially those whose sole measure of themselves is based on grades or income. Hopefully, our curriculum, while at the time being seemingly extraneous and inconsequential, will protect us from being the kind of people Newman describes in “The Idea of a University”: those “whose minds are possessed with some one object, tak[ing] exaggerated views of its importance, are feverish in the pursuit of it, make it the measure of things which are utterly foreign to it, and are startled and despond if it happens to fail them. They are ever in alarm or transport,” (X311). We are willing to take courses 

and subjects outside of our major, classes that push us intellectually, that are based on the principle that “education is a process, not a set of facts,” as stated in “Discovery Learning,” (X343B). Plus, we now have and understand the significance of the turtle pond, enabling us to take a step back from the frenzied daily rat race.

Essentially, I chose to be in Plan II because I feel that, in concurrence with what Newman said in “The Idea of a University”, “any kind of knowledge, if it be really such, is its own reward,” (X309). Whether it be from reading books about some third world country, conversing with someone of another cultural background or religion, or studying a subject that is completely new, learning just for the sake of the sake of doing it is justifiable, for it results in a far more well-rounded, dynamic, versatile self. Those who not only understand this concept, but fervently pursue it (that would be us Plan IIers) are the ones who help fulfill the pledge stated in the Constitution of Texas when it was written 132 years ago- that it would be “a University of the first class,” (X304).