Reader Responses to Not Even Looking at My Grades

As the mother of Oren Karp ’20 I want to say that Oren has had an amazing experience at Brown, and not just because of the Open Curriculum. Although Oren may not seem to care about grades, he has chosen a difficult and serious course of study, choosing a path that is surely what President Paxson describes as “constructive irreverence.” Outside of his academic load he has also enjoyed what Brown offers. In his extracurricular pursuits he performed half-naked in a dance performance with Shakespeare on the Green freshman year, he joined a band and taught himself to play bass, he gets himself all the way across the city once a week to tutor a young boy from the Congo, hosts a weekly radio show, and has led several trips for the Brown Outing Club and BOLT. Despite what Oren says, choosing to apply for an Independent Concentration was not simply “writing up a quick 18-page” proposal. It has been a way to challenge himself and expand his interests. Simply sticking to the requirements of the Middle East Concentration would have been the easy thing to do.

It’s a shame Mr. Karp didn’t take a basic English course (along with Egyptian Hieroglyphics and other his classes) so he wouldn’t use “like” in almost every sentence. 

Oren Karp’s “Not Even Looking at My Grades (Current Obsession, January/February 2020).” Might I suggest that Mr. Karp take like at least one course in English composition to fill in his “Storytelling” concentration? He used, like, the word “like” ten times in an essay that was, like, really short. Only one like was appropriate. Or was he, like, kidding about being able to put together a concentration of like unconnected courses at a tuition of over $60,000 per year? Students should learn to speak, as well as write, without excessive use of fillers. When people speak in this manner, their credibility is diminished.