Fall 1994

	The idea of div 1s is to have an experience where you deal
with truth in a certain way. My NS div 1 involved 1) critiquing a
model for rainfall differences between forest and field in a paper 2)
meeting with the author of that paper to discuss my critique 3) doing
an experiment where I measured actual temperatures and describing the
results in a letter to the author and my professor. Most folks at
Hampshire claim the purpose of a div 1 is to learn the "method of
inquiry". But I think that that is not the case. Some people are going
to do successfull div 1s already knowing the "method of inquiry" when
they begin, and other folks are going to finish successful div 1s
still very shaky on "logic" (and "logic" is really what method of
inquiry is all about, isn't it?).
	When you do a div 1, you are proving to and for yourself that
you _can_ think about, have opinions about, and discover truth about,
a certain field. The important thing to me is that you are doing it
for yourself. I can look back at my NS div 1, and my CCS div 1, and I
know that I am capable of thinking about those fields. The project
really was valuable. To a certain extent, those projects were not
ideal, because I felt a little like I was forced to do them. I would
rather have had more "inviting me to do them" than I did. But at least
I was not discouraged. Everybody will also get different things from
their div 1s besides the experience. My NS Chair is under the
impression that one of the valuable things I got from mine was to see
that I could be wrong. For some people, it may be more important to
see that they can be right.
	So what's the problem with div 1s at Hampshire? The problem is
that faculty have failed to provide an evironment in introductory
classes where students are encouraged and given the opportunity to do
div 1s. Sometimes students are encouraged in introductory classes, but
there is so much classwork that they don't have time to do the div 1
until the class is over and the next semester has begun, and by that
time, they're working on the next semester's classwork. That's part of
what I mean by opportunity (having time and the professor's time). I
also mean the professor having the interest in the students to figure
out what the student might be interested in that could develop into a
div 1. Other times, students aren't encouraged to do div 1s at all in
their intro classes, so they don't. Folks wonder why so many people
quit Hampshire. It's quite clear that many quit because they feel like
they aren't making, and don't know how to make, progress. In order to
make progress, they need to have their hand held a little bit. But
rather than a traditional college, where students are "roped" to the
teacher, I propose that Hampshire students be invited by teachers into
special div1 classes:
	Have some introductory classes designated as div1 classes. The
professors should decide for themselves if they want to teach them. At
Hampshire, we have a lot of teachers who are not competent of teaching
them, because they really don't understand what divs are all about.
Damn people. But I hope the ones who _do_ understand are the ones who
teach the special courses. There could be a number of ways a class
might organize itself / a professor might organize a class (depending
on the class and the professor) to meet the goal of everyone in the
class doing a div 1. For example, the goal of the first third of the
course can be an introduction to, say, epidemiology. Then the second
half of the course would be an exploration of different directions
they could go with their projects. Finally, the last third could be
actually doing the projects/research/whatever. Or maybe the class will
decide on the first day that they want to go take water samples of
here and there, learn what analyzing means as they analyze the
samples, and break into groups after only a couple weeks to research a
specific aspect of what they're doing. It may be really hard for a
professor to figure out what to suggest to specific students to get
them excited. That's why we need good teachers I guess. I wish
Professors or older students (including myself I guess) were more
inventive about how to get younger students involved in exciting
projects. The hardest thing about classes with projects is when the
students aren't psyched.
	3) The right way for everybody to get reasonable ideas of what
they {can do,should do, should encourage their advisees to do} in
their divs is to have an ongoing dialogue.  Students, administrators
and faculty must always be writing about what div 2 means to them and
putting that in some journal (online or in print) that most people
read. There should also be meetings for computer people to discuss
what div 2 in computer science means. Same for every other bunch of
people. The same thing goes for divs3 and 1. There should be this
ongoing dialogue out in the open. Include alumni.
	3b) If it's your opinion that many people your colleagues are
graduating don't know enough about anything to be "prepared" for the
world, then you should write an article in that journal explaining why
you think "preparedness" is so important, then secondly that you are
concerned that some people aren't "prepared".