OPINION

Published Monday, May 31, 2004
What I Learned at Harvard: The “Informal Curriculum”
By Jamie Schultz

When you decide to travel to a new destination, you experience excitement, nervousness, trepidation and change.

New expectations and an explosion of diversity: diversity in views, actions, ways of living, and ways of thinking.

Throughout this year, we have all learned a great deal—how to be a more effective principal, what part of a child’s brain is “lighting up” when they read phonemes, or how to successfully run a video conference in Japan.

All of us have participated in another type of learning this semester however: an induction into what I would like to call the “informal curriculum.”

No, there is no syllabus, and you will not be graded on this one.

However, the informal curriculum is something you learn by default, those lightbulb moments when you say to yourself: Why wasn’t this in the brochure?

Getting in. Ah, the relief! The application process is over. I made it. I’m in! Wait . . .what are those little asterisks next to the classes I want to take?

Extracurricular events. GSE offers an excellent array of clubs and activities, lectures by world-renowned researchers—and you won’t have time to do any of it.

Asking a question of a professor or speaker. Before coming to GSE, I was under the false impression that a question was a one-line inquiry to be answered by the person being addressed. However, I have been retrained to learn the distinct parts to the question-asking process. First, you must emphasize that your question in no way diminishes the many merits of the speaker’s work; next, you must prove how intelligent you are by detailing what research you have done on the subject (bonus points for naming authors or call numbers); only now can you ask your question—a question that sounds professional, but really just aims to prove that the person being asked is wrong.

Ongoing assessment. Feedback? Grades? Ah, yes, those markers of progress I experienced in undergraduate years that let me know how I was doing while I was taking the course. Novel.

“Recommended reading.” Yes, those are the 10 required texts for the course. What are supplementary texts? Of course, you will only read 2-3 chapters out of 4 of them. (Maybe if I realized this first semester, I wouldn’t have subsisted on half-price baked goods between 4-6 p.m. at Au Bon Pain for two months.)

A Square meal. Do I really have to take the T to go to McDonald’s? How many sandwich shops can they squeeze into a three-mile radius? Has anyone heard of a steakhouse—a place where large portions of meat and potatoes are served? (Okay, I’m from the Midwest, but still.)

January exams. Winter Break. A time to enjoy dinners with family and friends, to visit exciting destinations---oh wait, no, I was wearing sweats, drinking cold coffee, and seated at my computer working on my final papers.

Architectural design. The basement of Larsen Hall. A lecture hall with 100 people, two-minute breaks, and 2 stalls in the bathroom. You do the math. And what is with the black chair that made its home in the handicapped stall of the women’s bathroom for the last two months? I know women tend to travel to the toilet in packs, but do we need to bond in the stall now?

Getting involved. Is it wrong to unofficially “drop by” various extra-curricular meetings around dinner time? (I have perfected the “schmooze and grab”; however, I was once asked to kindly bring back the Sprite I had taken for “those who were part of the meeting.”) A person has to eat, right?

Making the grade. “Grade inflation is a problem in higher education.” Yeah, right! Is there anyone who is getting straight A’s and sleeping?

Printing in the library. I know people waste, but come on. Fifty cents for paper? Ten cents for water in Conroy? You people do realize I just dropped 30 grand and am living on Ramen noodles and generic soda from Stop & Shop, right?

Commencement. Two tickets? Are you kidding me? Definitely more than 2 people should be there telling me how great I am and how much I have accomplished.

Jamie Schultz, a student in the Specialized program, is a member of the Appian Board of Editors.