In class out classed has put me on my own personal barometer. I am constantly reevaluating my opinions on the effects of class and education. This can be frustrating but, I believe it is a good thing for me because, it means I have kept an open mind throughout the class. This has in turn caused me to reconstruct my writing process. Now before I begin my essays, I look over class notes and the notes I make on the articles and I write down all of my thoughts and ideas. This helps me keep my essays focused because I have found it is easy to start writing and get caught up in several different ideas and topics. My goal at the beginning of this class was to improve my writing skills. This is still one of my goals but now I am more interested in trying to figure out what the correlation between education and class is and how the disparities that this causes can be fixed. I think my classmates are looking to get the same things out of the class, in addition, I believe some of them might also be working on improving their discussion skills. Overall, if I could add anything to the class, I would have everyone come prepared to discuss three different ideas or concepts from the reading that they prepared ahead of time. I think this would help further the discussions because people who are not as comfortable with the discussions would have talking points to start them off. Beside’s this I am still unsure about how I feel with both classes reading each other’s posts.

Like venn diagram, my interest was immediately captured by Andrew Sullivan’s “The He Hormone.” I appreciated the information on hormonal differences between males and females, but was frustrated at times by the ways Sullivan used these biological differences to explain differences in the social roles men and women take on. I understand that testosterone levels have an impact on many elements of our personality and behavior, such as an individual’s self-confidence and energy levels. However, using differences in testosterone levels to explain the fact that more men are in politics or powerful business positions than women do, negates the fact that important social factors are also at play.

Hey Everyone!

This link is just food for thought, but it points out something I think pertains to the article by Edmundson we read earlier in the semester. Justin Fox, a Harvard Business School professor, talks about the value of a college degree and how the supply of college graduates is much greater than the demand, which ultimately allows for a really horrible job market in the United States. He talks about how the cost of a degree is far more expensive than its worth in most cases today, and the possibility that this will create an education bubble that will eventually burst. 

I think this can really help explain Edmundson's point about the mentality of college students today who feel tremendous pressure to perform to perfection rather than taking risks.

-"The Education Bubble, Tenure Envy, and Tuition"

Harvard Business Review

http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2011/06/the-education-bubble-tenure-en.html

My reflection revolved around my ability to "edit" my ideas and rethink many opinions about our educational system that I once firmly believed in. Prior to being in this class, I had a strong belief that every student should go to college and those who didn't were destined to be failures. Even though I saw students who simply weren't raised to beleive college was even a remote possibility, I felt comfortable telling myself that these students simply weren't ambitious or motivated enough to reach college. Essentially, I was blaming these students for something that, in many aspects, was out of their control. Since being in this seminar, my views on the topic have changed tremendously; and I realize the adversity that disadvantaged students have in our educational system that promotes "fairness." My ability to really grapple with issues like these has been the area where I've seen the most growth in myself over the course of this seminar. 

My perceptions and beliefs about education have definitely been challenged and expanded through the progression of this class. I’ve learned that everyone in my class has had different educational backgrounds than myself, but we all have something in common and things to share with the class. I’m not quite sure what we have in common but I know that it’s something because the way in which we have our conversations, you would think that we have all shared some of the same educational experiences.

It’s nice to be apart of a class where I am not judged for what I have to say. I think that collectively as a class we have so many opinions to offer. I really like that we work really hard to challenge ourselves and work to understand (to the best of our ability) complicated readings—knowing and hearing the ideas of others helps me rethink what I have to say.