#vce philosophy

[aquietnovember]

on that study grind at the moment. year 12 vce exams are killing me. romanticising studying thanks to my ever growing obsession with dark academia. pray for me everyone 🙏

ps: if you’re a current/former vce student, drop your study tips in the hints! particularly if you’re studying:

history: revolutions (i’m doing french and russian)

media

french

philosophy

pps: best of luck to anyone doing exams at the moment! we’ve got this :,)

[little--buttercup]

having to rawdog the mental illness since my lil hospital stay and i just saw a video of the "can't help myself" art installation by sun yuan and peng yu and started crying lmao so i'm doing really well xx

[do-you-have-a-flag]

nothing like the one year of philosophy i took in vce where we sang this regularly to help memorisation

turns out i can still recite the Bruce’s Philosopher’s song to this day

[fatgirlsguidetodating]

Note to my 18 year old self.

I’m sure you’ve seen the myriad of iso challenges going round on all forms of social media. On insta the push-up challenge. On Facey the pick one album a day that influenced you for 10 days, the life is good 10 days of photos challenge, the pick a photo of you you love challenge or the iso baking challenge. On Tiktok the weird dance challenge. On Snapchat the iso is getting to me, better message my ex and see if I can fuck with their mind a little more because I just didn’t fuck them up quite enough already and I can’t turn down the chance to fuck with them some more challenge. Oh, that’s not a challenge? Just something they do for fun? My bad.

My point is there are challenges aplenty. And I’ve resolutely ignored every single one I’m tagged in. Because, like the majority of those “get to know your friends” quizzes we often see on Facebook, I simply cannot be fucked. Except one. The write a letter to 18 year old you which landed in my inbox this morning. But I’m doing it here instead, in the anonymity of my blog that only one friend from real life knows the name of and a handful of peeps on twitter who know my name may have seen it linked to.

I apologise though in advance- this might be kinda long. But brevity when it comes to writing is not my forte.

****

Dear 18 year old A,

Firstly: you’re awesome. Just in case nobody told you today. Which I can pretty much guarantee they didn’t. And even if they had would you have believed them? No. Because your sense of self-worth was (is) tied up entirely in your weight.

Which isn’t surprising given you had an unhealthy relationship with food from around the time you entered puberty and suddenly you weren’t the skinny little thing you had been growing up (side note: you will have that unhealthy relationship forever so you should probably address that before you get to 40 and still refuse to eat in public on your own in case people think look at that bigger girl eating food, how dare she! Another side note: don’t actually book that Europe dream holiday for 2020. Write that year off completely because it’s going to be a shitshow).

When suddenly you put weight on you freaked and have pretty much been on a diet of some form ever since. Yes that’s right, for 28 years you will always have that unhealthy view of food and weight. Sometimes you’ll go days, even weeks with just eating the one meal- dinner because you couldn’t hide not eating that from your parents whereas you could pretend to eat breakfast or the lunch and snacks your mum packed for you. (You’ll do that even at 40.) Sometimes you’ll get depressed and sneak junk food into your room to eat at night and throw the empty wrappers over the back fence onto the pipeline. Sometimes you’ll make yourself throw up whatever you ate and sit on the floor of the toilet in tears. Sometimes you’ll find a middle road. But the food relationship was never, ever healthy and it will, in some form, define the rest of your life. If you get some perspective on that and change that view your life will be so different. But you won’t.

It wasn’t that you didn’t do any exercise either, you played a few sports and school holidays and weekends were spent outside riding your bikes, playing footy or basketball or splashing around in the pool with your friends. It was just your luck to be a bigger girl. (And even though there are time’s when you would get down to near a healthy weight something would happen and the weight would pile back on.)

I know people scoff at the notion of being bigger boned or that some people are just meant to have a little weight thing (though science does talk about the fact that some people are genetically predisposed to gaining weight easier than others) but you are the spitting image of your grandmother when she was your age and have the stocky build that your paternal side of the family often have. But

in all honesty no matter what you will try it won’t work. At least not permanently. Which is precisely why the fact that your self-worth was so tied up in your weight was an issue. And remains an issue.

It’s hardly shocking that this was the case though. You’d see the ideal of a perfect girls body on “Dolly” or “Girlfriend”, or on tv- there wasn’t the added pressure of social media which is something I am eternally grateful to in so many ways even now- and hate yourself.

You’d see your skinny friends having boyfriend after boyfriend while you didn’t. And when, in year 8 one guy asked you out you assumed it was some kind of dare. It wasn’t and you probably should have said yes but that’s in the past and is not a decision that would make a huge impact to your life.

You’ll suddenly be of age to go out drinking with your friends. However a couple of them will use you to drive every Friday night and you will do it because you can’t say no to your friends but you really should because it wasn’t fair. Just because you were the only one with a licence and car you could have found other ways there or simply refused since it meant you couldn’t have a single drop of alcohol whilst they got shitfaced. But on nights out- whether you were drinking or not- guaranteed you’d be one of the only ones without any male attention. Though, in the fairness and slight objectivity that hindsight can bring, this could have been due, in part, to the fact you’d hunch into yourself and hide in a corner because the one time you did get drunk and have a dance a group of guys pissed themselves laughing at the fat girl dancing. (And it wasn’t because you couldn’t dance- you actually do have decent Rythm and did dance growing up.) You should allow yourself to have more fun, you shouldn’t hide the corner because who knows what could have happened.

But promise me you won’t let that lack of self-worth lead to you missing out on some of the best experiences you could have! Say yes to that Europe backpacking holiday. Say yes when a guy asked you on a date rather than assuming there was some kind of dare involved or that they thought you would be easy because you were a bigger girl. Say yes to so much more.

Secondly: though you didn’t have the confidence to stand up for yourself and what you wanted then- and to some degree never will- you need to follow your heart. Despite your absolute love of the law from the time you read “To kill a mockingbird” when you studied literature and your time doing legal studies as an elective during your VCE you should study what you want to at uni. Yes you will always love the law but you shouldn’t let people pressure you into what to study at uni. It was a given you’d go to uni. But you should put social work as your first preference and law as your second preference.

Don’t let people talk you out of studying what you wanted to do because it didn’t pay well. Yes at 18 the idea of making good money was a drawcard but years down the track you will decide to go back to uni and finally get that social work degree to go with the legal ones and postgrad ones. Career wise this will work well as the justice system desperately needs social workers and your time working in the legal arena fostered a life long love of the law. But follow your dreams here. Because money isn’t the be all and end all. And, with the benefit of hindsight here, I can say you wouldn’t be in the position you are in at 40 now.

Thirdly: though there are some mistakes you needed to make- after all isn’t that how we learn?- there are others you didn’t need to make. Others that will make life unnecessarily hard on yourself. I can see now, so many years later, that many of these stem from your lack of self worth and self confidence due to your weight. For instance you need to not give people more chances than they deserve (in both friendships and relationships but more on that to come). Instead of giving them infinite chances decide on a three strikes and you’re out policy and this will honestly save you a lot of heartache I promise. It won’t save all, and it probably shouldn’t because it’s from heartache that you will learn and grow, but it’ll save a lot.

I promise you life is worth living. On those many occasions when you will cry yourself to sleep for nights on end and on those occasions when you half-heartedly try to kill yourself it won’t feel like that but it is. And when you first realise that there’s something wrong please, please don’t think it’s just you, that you are a fuckup, don’t suffer in silence. Tell someone. Be it your parents, one of your best friends, even your doctor. Because it will effect parts of your life for a long time and there are times that it didn’t need to had you got help.

You need to be less trusting and naive. Because not everyone has the same morals in life as you. But at the same time please don’t let the hurt make your heart hard. Because your big heart is one of the things that those who know you love about you. That’s right: your friends love you. The person you see in the mirror does not represent all of you. That won’t matter to them.

You need to follow your passions in life. Like work on those novels more, remain working in animal rescue, do those courses that you wanted to do like learning sign language, and philosophy.

Fourth: Don’t put off that travel. It’s literally the best thing you could do. It will allow you to find yourself, to discover more about the world, to gain new perspectives. Don’t wait until you are older and wiser. Also that travel fling? Do it.

Fifth: Not all friendships should be watered. But you will allow your friends to walk all over you because you are so desperate to keep everyone happy. Only: what about keeping yourself happy? You matter too. So when friends use you, when friends make you feel shitty about your life walk away. You’ll find that, as you get older, the true friends will be the ones who remain. They’re the ones worth it.

Which leads me to six: same goes for relationships. There will be men in your life that shouldn’t be there and there will be men who aren’t but should be. There will be a couple of men who will totally define your life. And not necessarily in a good way. Take J for instance. He’s your first big mistake and he will fuck up your view of men forever. That will lead to you not trusting that a man can be decent. And it will lead you to making bad choices when it comes to men. So if you could avoid sleeping with him you’d be a lot better off. Because he doesn’t care. And he lied to you all about being separated.

Please don’t let that lack of self worth that drive you into situations you deserve more from. But you will. For many years. After all your lack of self-confidence, self love and self worth will all contribute to this. Because you’ll think what have I got to offer, this is the best I’ll get because who’d want a bigger girl. You won’t realise it at the time, and it will take you another 22 years to do so, but you deserve good things in life and in love. And eventually will learn that being single is better than settling for less than you are worth. Know this too: sex does not equate happiness. I mean yes there’s a happy feeling after sex but it doesn’t mean they have any feelings for you. It just means sex. Don’t let yourself believe it means more or that would lead to heartache.

Finally: there are actually good things about you. I know you can’t see them now, I know you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you, but there are. 40 year old you can see them. Though she would still have trouble admitting them because her self-confidence has not gotten to the levels where she can list good things about herself. But trust me: they’re there.

Don’t let the world get you down. There’s so much to see and experience. Just say yes!

40 year old A.

[youth-work-and-other-things]

Transcript: A twitter thread.  Remember HSC & VCE students, ur #ATAR expires after a year. They won't tell u that in school bc schools love to get as many students to reach a target ATAR score & go to uni so they can boast the stats to parents of potential new students. Continue... Private, Public, or whatever, schools r operated like businesses. But u don't have to play their game of being what they want u to be for their interests over ur own. Actually, of anything of importance u can learn in school is how to fight 4 what is right 4 u when authority figures tell u otherwise. That & English (not necessarily getting high English marks but being able to read & write will help u learn other things on ur own & on ur terms). But I understand that is a hard thing to do bc when u have little time bc of study, u hardly get space to think clearly. Yet, I came to this idea in Yr. 12 as a life crisis made my learning compromised & being down & out made me see the true colours of mainstream education. Not that I not had teachers who cared for me but they pressure from their authorities to keep pushing against what was in best interest in how they can teach me in my low point. Anyway, midway thru yr. 12, I found out about an Art school in the local TAFE, found all I needed to do was pass English & have an arts portfolio. I fought for a compromise that I will aim for this goal if they leave me alone other than help me pass English & Art. It was a deal. I got an ATAR in the low 40s. But I kept to my word in passing those subjects. But TAFE did felt like education rehab & I got more interested in humanities as the arts history unit teaches philosophy, sociology, & anthropology. Call it accidental strengths based education. Fast forward to 5 years later & I got into VU. How? They wanted a pass in English & a cv of community service. I felt more ready & committed than I would if I was a school leaver to be there bc I had a little life experience, self-knowledge, & no outside adult pressures. And VU made it possible for me to get into UniMelb for post grad. So my point is that we kinda have an education system that has an open back door when the front door is first slammed in our faces; if u have enough abilities & privileges to find it. But all more for the ATAR to be scrapped. Bc learning is a personal thing & shouldn't be a competitive thing. But also more for alternative tertiary education like TAFE to get a boost in funding & able to teach new tech & trades. Because 4 every capable & cerebral engineer, there is a person that is good with a spanner even though they've little patience 4 book learning. But they may need each other 4 their different strengths 4 projects. So it's in everyone’s interests to have varied learning pathways & a scrapping of a class gatekeeping & ableist tertiary entry score for students. So, u do u for the best interests of ur abilities. Just know that...u fight to learn & work smart w/o working unnecessarily hard.

[essayaboutobesitycauseandeffects]

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About me

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[ardbhair]

Hello, I’m Ned. I am currently completing VCE studying 20th century history, classics, philosophy, English (I’m switching to literature soon though) and general maths. I plan to go to Melbourne Uni and study history, english and film.

I love history and classics, hence the url. I’m also really into aestheticy stuff, so expect some of that.

I love the studyblrs, @elkstudies​ @studyquill​ @em-spacestudy​ @educatier​ @gloomstudy​ @sleepystvdying​ @tiny-notes​ @lemonade-studies​ @estudiear​ @quantumgirlstudies​ @sophocused​ @vestiblr​ @rhubarbstudies​

[boots-beneath-mybed]

I HAVE AN EXAM THE DAY THE ALBUM COMES OUT

and for my worst subject too

[qwedfas]

whats philosphy vce 1&2 like? what do you learn? is it beneficial for the future? what are the assessments like? how hard is it? is it fun? what do you learn?? and what are some cons for it

Hey there!

We are so sorry for the late response but here it is:

I did philosophy unit 1 and from what I can remember, we did arguments, looked into the history of philosophy and key philosophers. Philosophy is useful for the critical thinking component of EI, if you’re thinking of doing that. It’s a very interesting subject in general. A personal con, which lead to me dropping the subject after first semester 1, was that it required a lot of thinking, and thinking deep. Your brain must be ‘on’ every single class, I also found it hard to express my ideas sometimes, so it’s a tad demanding in that aspect. Overall I think it’s a great subject to challenge yourself to think in new and different ways.

Also check out this link for more philosophy related posts: http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/search/philosophy

Hope this helps!

Love,

FAM xx

[cra1eca-18482198-blog]

The arts have gained a greater meaning and responsibility in the curriculum over time and is being understood as a beneficial subject to each individual learner that undertakes any of the various subjects within the arts domain. The modules for this subject gave an insightful history and background on the philosophy and pedagogy of the arts and specifically media arts. Elliot W. Eisner for example, discusses the hierarchy of educational studies and how previously in history, the arts as a subject was at the bottom of the chain and no one cared too much about the status of the arts in schools (Vanderbilt University, 2009). Essentially, the arts were not “considered necessary in education” (Vanderbilt University, 2009).  Noticeably now, this has turned around and the education system encourages and enforces the arts to be completed and taken seriously within the curriculum. The arts have evolved over time due to the positive influence they have over student learning and character. “The structure of education is shifting beneath our feet" (Robinson, 2006). For the arts, this shift in structure will continue to have a positive effect on the growing importance and recognition of the arts’ subjects. Robinson speaks up on the necessity to have the arts recognised for its valuable teaching and learning content when he states, "Creativity in education is important as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status" (Robinson, 2006).

 Moving along to discuss media arts specifically, the subject addresses content that students can use as sustainable learning and knowledge which they can take with them into the world after their educational journey has concluded. This knowledge is provided from the practical technology aspects and the theory components for the subject. For example, when completing the previous two assignments and having to determine the VCE key knowledge and skills that would arise from completing the tasks, it was evident that this knowledge and skills can be used for cross curricula and sustainable life purposes. To be specific, the following key skill “Operate technical equipment, use applications and apply media processes to develop skills” (VCAA, 2013. P.22), is a beneficial skill for students to learn as it can be applied to their everyday demanding life habits in the twenty-first century of using technology. The skill that students would obtain from this learning in media specifically could also be used within another subject, say a humanities subject when using computers to learn content. The stance that one can have on these cross curricula learning techniques is that it is beneficial to incorporate and promote to students, that learning new ways to use different technology can be a sustainable skill to have in the future. Another cross-curriculum aspect that media arts is using and depending on, is a huge variety of the English subject’s modes and techniques. This can be seen through all three modes of the English subject: “reading and viewing, writing and speaking and listening”. Beneficially for students, using these modes and techniques throughout the learning activities completed in the media arts means they can refine and practice these skills without even being aware that they are doing so.

[impingement]

ok man alright i liked philosophy it was pretty rad but omg too many words not enough dOIN G THINGS

the best thing about it was the heightened evaluating and analysing skills u get from picking apart everyones arguments

o well nearly done now

[qwedfas]

do u recommendo philosophi y for vce

Hey there!

Unfortunately none of us are studying philosophy but check out this link, as we answered some questions similar to this recently!

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/search/philosophy

FAM xx

[qwedfas]

hi! who teaches philosophy 1/2? and have any of the FAM leaders done that elective? interested and would like to hear about some experiences c: thank you

Hey there!

I didn’t do the ½ units of philosophy but did do the ¾ units in a combined class with some ½ students. Most of our content overlapped and due to the low number of people interested in the subject we mostly catered to the ¾ students and covered that content. I’ve written about my experience before and you can find them in these asks:

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/161802275827/this-is-a-q-for-kelly-im-super-interested-in

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/161802745377/what-is-vce-philosophy-like-what-is-the-point-of

In regards to the teacher, I’m not sure about that sorry - for me i had a teacher that’s now left the school, although i think Ms Brown may be taking it. I would check with your coordinators though just to be sure

Hopefully this helps!

Love, FAM xx

[qwedfas]

hey kelly! I am always very fascinated to see that you chose no maths/science subjects whatsoever for vce! how did you come to that decision, do you have any regrets and what is your fav subject and why? Do you think not doing any maths/science subjects will impact you in the future? And you obviously have a clear vision, what exactly is your plan for after school finishes? How will each subject you have chosen impact your life, why did you choose each one in particular?

Hey there!

I’m glad you’re interested knowing more about how I picked not to pick any math or sciences, and i hope my response can help you out!

I came to the decision that i didn’t want to do any math or science because they’re mainly  irrelevant to the courses in university I’d like to do and the potential future careers i want to pursue. I definitely don’t have any regrets about it, even if it’s going to mean i can’t do certain things, mostly because i have no interest in doing those things. Like you said i do have a very clear, or at least someone what clear, idea of what i want to do in the future, and it’s definitely something I’ve thought about before making my decisions. After highschool i want to do something similar or a double degree of arts (for the political, historical and theoretical aspects) and something more specific in the area of film/ tv production (ie: media, communications, etc). Then after that following careers in line with those areas.

The subjects that I’ve chosen for VCE are pretty much a reflection of things that i enjoy and fall into the same areas of things I’d like to study after high school. So revs covers my interests in history and politics, global politics and extended investigation (as I’m doing a question about politics)  covers politics, media covers my interest in filmmaking, and philosophy and literature cover my interest is different philosophical/ theoretical perspectives. I love each of these subjects so much and i enjoy all my classes, which makes it really hard to choose a favourite, but I’d have to go with media. It’s ultimately what i want to do most in my future, if I could make or work on films for the rest of my life I’d be so happy and fulfilled. In the subject I was given so much room to be independently creative, got to learn more about the kinds of techniques and influences that goes into filmmaking, and got to learn more about the industry as well.

Hopefully I’ve been able to help! Feel free to send me more questions too if you’d like :)

Love,

FAM xx

[qwedfas]

what is vce philosophy like? what is the point of it? what career paths does it lead to? who teaches it and what are your experiences?

Hey there!

I did philosophy ¾ last year and answer this previous ask i think would help in regards to getting a feel for the subject and what it’s like, about the teachers and the class, and my experiences. Here’s the link - http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/161802275827/this-is-a-q-for-kelly-im-super-interested-in You should also come along to our upcoming VCE subject selection sessions that we’ll be running, in which you can ask me more questions about my expereinces.

 In terms of what the point is of it, that can be a super subjective thing. I did it because i wanted to know more philosophical theories and because that’s whole area of the ‘realm of ideas’ was really fascinating to me. I also enjoy thinking about concepts such as morality/ ethics, mortality, life after death, etc. It is also a great space to have debates and talk about philosophical issues. This tends to be the reason most people are interested in the subject, as it opens up your thinking and critical abilities to analyse arguments and theories, but everyone can take something different out of it. And while it’s not the most traditional way of setting yourself on a career path, doing philosophy, similar to doing an arts degree, can lead to careers in journalism, writing, law, social work, therapy, in the public sector, teaching, etc. It’s also a subject that can mean a lot more than just what career you want to pursue, as it’s really applicable to all aspects of your life and makes you question the foundations of your personal identity, ethics and beliefs.

 Hopefully this helps!

Love, FAM xx

[qwedfas]

this is a q for kelly! im super interested in doing philosophy next year (im y11) and i read through the study design, so can i ask you who your teacher was and any advice you have for the subject in general? (i.e. how much time should i devote to hw/study, is the workload p big, class attitude, etc.)

Hey there!!!

Yay! I’m so excited to hear that people are interested in doing philosophy! I did it last year so my teacher was Mr Liarakos but he’s moved school now, so I think you’ll be getting Dr. Brown (as i think she does the ½), although you might want to check this with your coordinators/ teachers. I only did the ¾, not the ½, but hopefully this advice can help you out.

 In terms of the workload, there was quite a bit of stuff to do, but it was never strictly set homework, meaning you could studying in a bunch of ways, and it was generally just practicing a set of a few skills. The course is really focused around the texts, so you have to make sure you understand their overall meanings, their process of explaining their thinking, arguments they make, the analogies they use, but most importantly, you have to be able to draw your own conclusions about them. If i was in your position again i’d be thinking of ways to rebutt or argue against points brought up by the philosophers or going through why they have presented a strong argument, and these judgements can come from your own personal opinions about the topic. To understand the ideas better i would also write them out in a step by step process,annotate the hell out of the text, write out explanations for the analogies they use and use as many practice questions you can get your hands on (the textbook is literal gold for this). The most important thing is that you get the concepts, can explain them in your own words, and that you can articulate them on paper. Although, this is the skill you’ll be practicing over and over again for different texts. Doing a bit of this every few days, or after covering something new in class is really helpful, but the amount of time you want to dedicate to it is really up to you. The workload can be big in the beginning when you’re reading the texts before you do in class, but as you go along there’s a pretty light spread of work you have to do. Keeping up with the text in class and the topics you’re covering means you’ll have to do less actual learning outside of class, leaving more time for revision for you to do.

Class attitude can often depend on the people in the class and the teaching style of your teacher, but because it’s a philosophy class there’s always LOTS of discussion. In my experience we discussed not only the actual texts themselves but our own thoughts on them, and, when moving into the area of study about contemporary debates, we talked about our beliefs in general. It made for a really fun and cool experience because not only did you get to hear other people’s opinions but you got actual class time to rant about your own. It’s one of those subjects were you’ve really got to throw yourself into and be interested in.

Hopefully this advice has been able to help, and to convince you to do philo ;) as it’s actually so amazing and fun, but we’ll be having VCE subject sessions soon in which I’ll be running the philo one. I would really encourage you to come along to that where you can ask me heaps more questions!

Love,

FAM xx