Today, we talked about Geneseo Learning Outcomes for Baccalaureate Education (GLOBE). After I first read the outcomes and goals listed under this page, I was disappointed in realizing that my classes didn’t really reflect what Geneseo’s goals seem to be. Communication, creative thinking, leadership, and a lot of the other outcomes that students are expected to demonstrate are not prioritized in my classes. Typically, I don’t speak to my classmates at all and I hardly speak to my professors. I honestly don’t mind this, but it does not correspond with what’s explained in GLOBE. But this discussion today made me realize certain things about this school as whole.
Global awareness is one of the learning outcomes GLOBE included, and one which I think Geneseo has effectively encouraged. I think global awareness is extremely important in a classroom, and I feel that most (if not all) of my professors have made tolerance and open-mindedness a priority. I’ve noticed that having this mentality discourages academic competition. I’ve always hated academic competition, and my grade in high school was extremely competitive with each other. It was toxic! The goal of education is to understand more, and in order to understand more, students must have open minds and a willingness to share ideas and opinions. At this point, I have never felt like I was in competition with my peers at Geneseo. And I think that ties into global awareness in that we as students are more concerned with gaining knowledge, wisdom, a better understanding of our surroundings, rather than simply getting paper grades. So maybe GLOBE is more implemented than I had initially thought.