What is the Difference between “Critical” and “Analytical”?

It’s the last day of fall break before classes resume again, and while GREs studying, I’ve stumbled upon two answer choices: “critical” and “analytical”. The process of elimination- it’s 50/50, life or death.

It was a simple test practice test question, but it made me wonder. What really was the difference between these two words? (Side note: Not a good idea to think about this when I actually take the GREs) To me, they seemed interchangeable with lots of murky overlap in between, like “advertising” and “marketing”, or “sociology” and “anthropology”. After painstakingly scrutinizing searches on Google, I guess the gist went something like this:  although both are interdependent on one another, a “critical” approach implies a more subjective or deliberate interpretation, while an “analytical” process simply deals with the facts and concluding inferences from the data given.

In an aspect, this relates to the essence of a  liberal arts education. It fascinates me when I ask what major someone is, because it reveals whether they’re “critical” (for instance,  English or Politics) or “analytical” thinkers (such as Biology or Economics). At a liberal arts institution like Bates, we’re all thrown into the mix and can’t have one without the other. Similarly, a job environment can’t exist without both. For example, if a company occupies too much analysis, then there’s not much room for improvement. Yet if it’s too critical in finding fault with a product, then efficiency cannot be achieved either.

So what would I classify myself as? I think I’m a little bit of both- and this is why I’m here. Process of elimination.

Pictures Worth A Thousand Words

Before coming to college, I’d never really thought of myself as an artist. It wasn’t until our sociology class undertook a project last year in collaboration with arts faculty in the Visual Culture, Music, Dance, and Theater departments- to both quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the role of arts at Bates and to present our findings to the public. Based on our conclusions, we discovered that although Batesies engage in some form of artistic activity (via chorus, radio, orchestra, or even just listening to music during a study break), not enough credit was given to the promotion of the arts here on campus.

After conducting the study, I decided to make it a personal goal to involve myself more in the visual arts. An “artist”, I’ve learned is not one who possesses the talent to produce it, but simply does it for the sheer aesthetic pleasure derived from the experience of seeing art and yet not even physically touching it. And so, I’ve signed up for an art class, “Visualizing Race”, where we examine artworks, performances (yes, we even watched and discussed this recently famous VMA moment), and even brand names such as Aunt Jemima and Abercrombie & Fitch- to explore the underlying racial contexts behind these entities and identities.

In addition, I decided to visit the current exhibition featuring local Maine artist Joel Babb who dissects the themes of cityscapes, nature, and bodies.

"New England Towers" (Joel Babb), an oil painting from 2002.

There is also a separate exhibit in Olin, Collection Project 4, that displays significant works donated by Bates alumni, by famous artists such as Cezanne, Homer, and Picasso.

As Andy Warhol aptly put, “Art is what you can get away with.” And art is most certainly not necessary for translation, let alone a thousand words.

“Serenity Now! Insanity Later.”

Hello all! First, I’d like to apologize for not updating as frequently. Why? It can only be that time of year again…Finals Week. Usually around this period spaces everywhere from P-Gill to the library fill up with students being studious. As an English major and Sociology minor, in lieu of most finals I have long papers to write (so far, I’ve been assigned 5 total and have just successfully finished all of them!)- whereas students taking classes in the sciences have an extended night of studying for cumulative exams.

To prevent students from suffering from a potential melt-down about their workload, Bates supplies “care packages” (which typically involves a grab bag of chocolate, gum, and other snacks that the school has generously provided you, at a price). Tomorrow (Monday), there will also be a study break session, from 4-8 PM, at Gray Cage with staff alert and ready to give students a free massage. Now, how many schools offer that?

PS- A brief note: As classes have already ended (you’ve got to hand it to the administration for giving students that time to relax and prepare), I wanted to share a picture taken in our last Public Sociology class of the semester (also my last one ever, having completed the requirements for the minor, and by far one of the best most exceptional classes I’ve ever taken here at Bates). We decided to surprise our professor as well as commemorate the social work each group has done, by dressing up in the same colors as our textbook (“Community-Based Research & Higher Education”). Naturally, she loved it!:

Sociology fever.

As the fall semester starts to wind down to an end, the sentiment echoed from the show “Seinfeld” really does it miraculously as squeezing the life out of a stress ball or incessantly hitting the “That was Easy!” button from Staples: “Serenity now! Insanity later…..”

Cool for School

As I mentioned previously in my entry about our sociology project (read more here: http://vforvoraciousbobcat.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/we-are-family-ive-got-all-my-sociologists-with-me/), we’ve been collaborating with the organization “College for Maine- Androscoggin” [http://collegeformeandroscoggin.org/] to investigate the low rate of college graduation and what factors affect this phenomenon by creating a survey that would best assess this context, in order to devise improved methods on how to facilitate college access, retention, and graduation.

Today, “College for Maine-Androscoggin” hosted their 4th Annual Higher Education Awards luncheon at the Hilton Garden Inn, from 12 t0 1:30. The room was extremely packed with 300 proud local residents donning their college regalia. Joan Macri (Coordinator of Aspirations Program at Lewiston High School) and Jan Phillips (Associate Dean for Outreach [Chair of Steering Committee] at the University of Southern Maine) hosted the ceremony (they also served as our supervisors on our project).

Jan giving a brief speech about her own personal experiences.

It was so inspiring to hear residents’ success stories about overcoming their barriers to attend college due to income difficulties, and working long hour shifts in jobs. Shirts reading “Future College Graduate” and excellence awards for students, corporate leadership, and student advocates were given to persevering individuals (mostly in their 30s or 40s) who were determined to complete a degree despite their age . New and upcoming plans were also revealed to the community for improving higher education access through both schools and employers.

A honorary recipient claims his award.

I can’t stress how grateful I’ve been to coming to this event, as well as participating in this project. It was such a overjoying feeling standing individually to be applauded by the entire room in sincere appreciation for our work from Bates. Not only has it made me reconsider the importance of both a social and academic education, but I will never forget the sea of bright faces glimmering with hope either from their past or towards their future to achieve the same success these role models truly won.

Sporting our Bates wear, with our professor on the far right.