1) The University of Texas’ commitment to discovery learning with several other characters in the book refusing to give Alice a straight answer.
The University of Texas is of the belief that students learn best through discovery learning, for “active learning supports the belief that knowledge can be constructed by you rather than received from a higher authority.”[1] Like Alice, we as students are in an environment much different than what we have become accustomed to in the first 18 years of our life. We are used to being presented with facts, a handout, or a PowerPoint that lists all we need to know about a subject. We never really had to think. However, now our professors expect us to learn things are our own; the process is no longer cut and dry. Doing so “forces [us] to confront [our] current ideas about the subject, many of which may be misconceptions, and reconcile them with what [we] now observe to be the case.” [2] Much like our teachers, the inhabitants often answer Alice’s question with a question. For example, the caterpillar tells Alice that “one side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter,” but he offers no further instructions [3]. Also, when Alice asks the Footsman how to get into the Duchesses house, he merely replies with “Are you to get in at all,” [4] and that she should do “anything [she] likes.” [5] Much like Alice, students come to the conclusion that when it comes to these kinds of professors, “there’s no use in talking to [them].” [6]
WHILE AT UT, IT IS THE STUDENTS WHO MUST MAKE THE DECISIONS, THE DISCOVERIES, SO THAT THEY MAY BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ANSWERS.
2) Every student’s unique degree, career, and life goals with the Caucus Race.
The majority of the students here at UT have a declared major, with the intention of using their degree to help them get a job in a field that requires such a degree. However, not everyone’s degree plans, career goals, or life goals are the same. For the most part, we are allowed to create a very unique path that will ultimately end in graduation. How we get to this finish line is up to us. In terms of accomplishing life goals, there is “no ‘One, two, three, and away!’” [7]. Instead, people begin “running when they like, and leave off when they like, so that it is not easy to know when the race is over.” [8]. Yet, in the end, if we all achieve our goals, then “everybody has won, and all must have prizes (satisfaction),” [9] just like in the Caucus Race.
EVERYONE IS A WINNER IN THE CAUCUS RACE, THOUGH THE TRACK IS DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE.
3) The amount of culture and city life that UT’s students are exposed to in Austin with Alice no longer being surprised by the odd things that are happening around her.
I have been exposed to so much since I have been here in this city and at this university. Coming from a small, conservative town, I experience something new nearly every time I go out, from an old man wearing a thong and a bra, to walking numbered streets, to having a professor that likes to dress up as his favorite Alice character. I am very confident that after I graduate form here, nothing (at least culturally) will surprise me anymore. Even at the beginning of her trip down the rabbit hole, nothing seemed too weird to Alice: she took it all in stride. She did not “think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late’” [10] Like me, Alice “had got so much in the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.” [11] I have definitely learned to expect the unexpected.
I HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO SO MUCH AT THIS POINT THAT I THINK THAT IF I WERE TO SEE THE WHITE RABBIT, I WOULDN'T THINK MUCH OF IT.
4) The temptation of drinking and partying with Alice’s willingness to drink and eat things.
After numerous instances where Alice ate something, she comes to the conclusion that eating and drinking in Wonderland will result in her changing size, or at least she “know[s] something interesting is sure to happen.” [12] After going to a few parties here, I can say that I came to the same conclusion. Enough said.
WHILE THE OUTCOME MAY BE GOOD OR BAD, ONE THING IS FOR SURE: WHEN YOU DRINK OR EAT THINGS AT PARTIES, SOMETHING INTERESTING IS BOUND TO HAPPEN.
5) The sometimes confusing E603A course website with the poem about the Jabberwocky.
The E603A course website, while helpful, can at times be pretty confusing (though I think we discussed this enough in class already). Similarly confusing is the poem about the Jabberwocky whose first line reads “ ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves” [12]. That is three fake words in one line. My spell check just went nuts by the way. However, they also both seem to be commonly popular. Apparently, this poem is one of the more memorable parts of the book, and Professor Bump’s former students all vividly remember their course website (though maybe not in a good way). To put in the words of Alice, “[they] seem very pretty, but [they’re] rather hard to understand.” [13]
AN EXAMPLE OF HOW SCARY THE COURSE WEBSITE CAN BE.
1) “Discovery Learning”, X343D
2)“Discovery Learning”, X343D
3) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 53
4) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 59
5) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 59
6) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 59
7) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 31
8) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 31
9) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 31
10) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 11
11) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, pg. 19
12) Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll, pg. 148
13) Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll, pg. 150
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