The world of the meta-competative

Well, what do you get when you cross protestant competition with eastern discipline?  Why, it can only be the meta-competative.  In college we all went through competitions with classmates.  Whether we were film students, history students, or literature students we all wanted the best grade on that paper, project, or dissertation we worked oh so hard on.  But in Korea this friendly academic competition is taken to a new extreme.  Recently, in all of my classes, I have introduced a point system for participation.  Before going on let me explain it to you.  Each time a student participates I give them a point.  If they give me the correct answer I give that student another point.  This system works great because it gets the students interested in class and keeps them engaged with the material.  Up til now, I have given the top student 20 CDI points and the second place student 10 CDI points.  This system has worked, but I also feel it has its draw backs.  My students are now point hounds.  They will do anything to get a point.  This leaves me a little disturbed and I want to find a way to turn back the hyper competative nature of my classroom.  Any thoughts?

On another note,  I have read four books in the past two weeks.  It has been a little extreme, but with no television my only option is to read.  The first book I read was William Gibson’s Iidoru.  This was an interesting cyber thriller that I greatly enjoyed.  It raises some great questions about technology, cyberreality, and that dreaded word, simulation that I would greatly enjoy discussing.  I also recently read the Savage Detectives.  This book is devastatingly good, so good I may reread one more time just to pick up on the things I missed.  Roberto Belano is a godsend and definitely one of the best contemporary writers.  The other book I read, and be forewarned, I am ashamed to admit it, but I reread The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  C.S. Lewis, where to start, he is creepy and his Christian leanings greatly disturb me.  In rereading the story I felt on every page he was surreptitiously and deviously pushing his Christian agenda on to the impressionable minds of young children.  Now, I don’t want to sound too harsh, but I would like to make a comparison.  Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is unashamedly atheistic.  However, unlike C.S. Lewis, it does not hide it in fantasty and mysticism, he lets the reader know that he is battling against the pitfalls of the catholic church.   On the other hand, C.S. Lewis has little aphoristic moral lessons that each of the children learn in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  This lessons initially come off as quaint, but when looked at more thoroughly it readily becomes apparent that C.S. Lewis is trying to push a deeply Christian agenda onto the young minds of children.  As a final thought I would like to say that I am torn in making this post.  I greatly enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy and this was a series that had some huge Christian overtones.  This may mean I am a hypocrite, but I still feel like C.S. Lewis is doing something different.  The last book I read was Nabokov’s Pale Fire.  And I am going to leave it at that.  I think I read this book just to say I read it.  I am not proud of that fact, and I couldn’t offer you anything more.  It was confusing, boring, and not nearly as enjoyable as Lolita.

Finally, update about this weekend.  I went into Seoul and hung out in the Hong Dei University district.  It was a good time and I greatly enjoyed it.  I also did some other illicit activities, but I will keep those veiled until the next post.  I hope all is well and I hope I did not bore you too much with my rant about the books I have recently read.