While trying to decide what a worthy topic for my final blog post would be, I read through Geneseo’s Learning Outcomes for Baccalaureate Education (GLOBE) once again. The outcome of Communication stood out to me: “To demonstrate proficiency in English and skill in another spoken language” and “to engage in discussion, debate, and public speaking in a manner suitable to the listener(s) and the discourse.” This outcome reminded me of my brother Fergus, who is thirteen years-old and has Down Syndrome. Although he is very social and highly verbal, Fergus has a speech impediment that makes it difficult for a lot of people (sometimes including me) to understand what he’s saying. With regards to education, the main end-goal for Fergus is not to go to college or have a career, but to be able to communicate with and understand the world around him. The academic partnership that Fergus had with his previous teacher, Miss. Kelly, has been the most influential factor in helping him communicate more clearly and effectively. Continue reading “A Partnership With Fergus O’Neill”
Celebrating Passion vs. Skill
During class today, I read Hannah Sharkey’s blog post “Who Knew Stats Could Be Profound?” I really enjoyed reading this blog post because not only was it beautifully written, but it forced me to think about when I’d been judged or valued based on my interests rather than figures about me. Hannah’s post discusses how most people ask for figures about a new person instead of asking about their traits and interests so I began thinking about each and every teacher that I’ve had throughout my education and realized a few things. The first was that Dr. Beth is the only teacher who has made me feel like she cared more about my interests than my skills from the second she met me. The next being that my tenth grade English teacher Mr. Harrison definitely valued me more for my ideas, attitude, and personality than for my work ethic, but only after seeing how lazy I was and after getting to know my personality well. Lastly and most importantly, I realized that my elementary school Omega class experience seriously encouraged the idea that my grades and skills do, in fact, define me. Continue reading “Celebrating Passion vs. Skill”
Gan’s Inner Game of Tennis
I am currently reading W. Timothy Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance, a book that my coach Ben Wach recommended to me in light of the anxiety I’ve been having about racing. Among the many aspects of this book that stood out to me, one part reminded me of our INTD class. Gallwey quoted the “very wise person” that had once told him that there are three types of people who respond to obstacles in different ways, the third of which “tries to find a viewpoint where what is on the other side of the obstacle can be seen. Then, only if the reward is worth the effort, does he attempt to overcome the obstacle.” (page 123)
The Dreaded Essay Rewrite
Trying to get myself to rewrite my “Bloodchild” Essay has been a struggle. I gave myself about two weeks where I was allowed to not think or look at the essay at all, and then I hoped to start revising it. Admittedly, I did not actually start revising my essay until a few days ago and I really did not enjoy doing it. I can’t say I was surprised at my own reluctance to look at the essay again because rewrites are just frustrating. While working on my essay, I began thinking about what the purpose of revision is, and that’s when Geneseo’s Mission Statement popped in my head. Two of the values listed as part of Geneseo’s Mission, Vision, and Values for the college and its students were learning and creativity. These two stood out to me because of their descriptions. “Learning: embracing high expectations for intellectual inquiry, scholarly achievement, and personal growth,” and “Creativity: affirming a spirit of innovation that inspires intellectual curiosity and problem-solving,” are both descriptions of what I’d like to practice and achieve as a student, so I began wondering why this process has been so difficult for me. Continue reading “The Dreaded Essay Rewrite”
Competition in Group Work
The first thing I wrote in my INTD notebook this semester was “blog post idea: class discussions feel like competition rather than sharing of ideas.” I came across this note I left myself after I read Zach Southcott’s blog post, “The Difference One Class Makes.” Zach’s post addresses how much we, as students, grow and expand from each other’s ideas, and it reminded me of what I’d written earlier in the semester. Zach’s post was pleasing to read because it reminded me of how much my feelings towards group work have changed. Continue reading “Competition in Group Work”
Group Work: The Challenge
Completing group assignments is exhausting, frustrating, and just overall quite taxing. In writing group assignments, each and every sentence gets dissected and debated until the consensus is that of approval, but even then so many ideas are lost and skewed along the way. But I think there’s a lot to learn in that process.
A lot of my frustration with group work lies in the fact that I have to explain my thoughts. It’s so difficult to explain to other people what I mean, why I’m thinking it, and why it’s important to write down. But that also forces me to think through my thoughts, which really benefits me. It’s like how if someone’s studying for an exam, they’re supposed to teach the topic to someone else so they realize where their own confusion lies. If I have to explain my thoughts to someone else, I have to provide evidence and a thought process, and in doing so I sometimes realize that I misunderstood or made assumptions about what I was writing about.
Feedback, Labels, and Partnership
In the past few years, I’ve both consciously and subconsciously begun to think of my elders more as unique people, rather than just the embodiment of whatever role they play in my life. My parents are not just parents; they are people with interests, flaws, and baggage. And so are my teachers. Over the years, I have noticed more and more of my teachers having different senses of humor, pet peeves, interests, and just general feelings. In fact, a lot of these end up being relatable. That shouldn’t be as surprising to me as it has been. Although my own mindset has played a big role in preventing me from getting to know my teachers better, I think that teachers are much more guarded and reluctant to show their personalities to younger students. The reason I am bringing this up is because I think understanding our teachers as people is another hugely important factor in establishing a healthy, beneficial academic partnership with them, and I really related to something Dr. Beth said to us in class. Continue reading “Feedback, Labels, and Partnership”
The Risks and Rewards of Childbirth
Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” explores the risks and rewards of childbirth and how they motivate characters, specifically the protagonist Gan. Although the short story does not deal with childbirth in the exact same way we know it, the T’lic-birth that Terrans experience is similar in some ways to that which women experience in our society. What prevents me from comparing the two more accurately is that we, as readers, do not know what a healthy, normal T’lic birth looks like. We only know what this birthing process looks like when it goes wrong. And I, as a woman, do not know what childbirth looks like when it goes wrong. I have only witnessed it go as planned. I am trying to keep this in mind as I evaluate the risks and rewards that Terrans experience in giving birth, versus those which women in our society experience.
Choice
When discussing with my classmates the power of choice (or lack thereof) in Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild,” I began to think about my own experiences with making choices. Did I have a choice in where I am at this moment? Did I ever choose this country, state, school, room, or body that I am in? I’ve never felt like I was outright forced to be in any of these, but I don’t think I ever made the conscious decision to be in them. More relative to the short story is the question of whether or not I had a choice in ending up at SUNY Geneseo. Before I delve into that question, I want to look at Gan’s freedom of choice. Gan was born into the Preserve; A place which Gan portrays as being a safe enclosure where Terrans and Tlic live together in symbiosis. Whether this is true or not I do not know, but at about halfway through the story, Gan is happy with this set-up. Although Gan is content with receiving eggs, warming T’Gatoi, and obeying the Tlic, he did not have a choice but to be born into The Preserve and therefore abide by its laws. This also means that Gan is never allowed to leave. According to him, he is safe in The Preserve. So one can assume he is not allowed to leave because it is for his own good. But this makes me wonder about my own choices. I am at Geneseo for my own good, I am kept safe by its set of laws, and I enjoy being here, but just as Gan’s contentment doesn’t equate to a choice well-made, I don’t know if mine does either. In deciding to attend Geneseo, I didn’t have much choice at all. My parents pay for my education so they had a great influence in where I chose to attend. They insisted that I go to a SUNY school because of the lower tuition and I insisted that I go to a Division 3 school because I wanted to be a part of the track team. So, we both agreed that I should go to the best Division 3 SUNY school I could get into. And here I am! But what would have happened if I disagreed with my parents? If I wanted to go to a more expensive school I would have had to pay for it myself. But I wouldn’t have been able to because I have approximately $0 to my name, since my parents insisted that I only work in the summers and focus on academics during the year. So if going to a more expensive school wasn’t an option, what about no school at all? If I didn’t go to college my parents wouldn’t let me live at home with them, unless I somehow found a job that paid enough money, demanded the respect of others, required skill, and was deemed worthy by my conservative, bearded, Irish-Catholic immigrant father. Impossible. I couldn’t consider living anywhere but under my parents’ roof because, as previously stated, I have $0. What if I decided to leave Geneseo at this moment? I’d find myself at the same bleak dead-end as in the other scenarios. I’d get booted from the O’Neill Household and I would be all by my lonesome. I don’t feel like I am here against my will, but if I were to leave, I would end up with nothing. Essentially, I am making the choice between earning my degree at SUNY Geneseo or spending my life homeless. To me, this is not a choice. I will admit that my analysis of my hypothetical choices is a bit dramatic. There is some choice in me choosing an education over homelessness. And maybe I wouldn’t end up completely homeless, but if I want to have emotional and financial support from my parents and a decent-paying job, I don’t have a choice but to stay where I am.* I didn’t realize that until I began to question it. Gan doesn’t realize he is trapped in a living space that could be potentially dangerous for him and he has no choice but to stay there. Maybe he would realize that if he wondered about his own freedom of choice. What would happen if he decided The Preserve was not enough for him? *my parents are not evil people– this is only hypothetical, and these scenarios are assuming I’d be leaving school to dedicate my time to something silly, or nothing at all.
GLOBE!
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.