Tag: critical writers

Posted on by Kevin Reed - No Comments on And So It Goes, But Where Its Going No One Knows

And So It Goes, But Where Its Going No One Knows

“Bloodchild” Essay

While researching Geneseo’s Student Code of Conduct (SCC), a document that has ample regarding what a college student at Geneseo is expected to do and how they are asked to behave, I found a link to the school’s policies and procedures. Under the school’s Privacy information, there is a specific section relating to CIT and their access to the personal information of students. It is here that Geneseo states that any information the school retains (such as name, email, phone number, and academic standing) can only be accessed by school officials and only for the purposes of administering “our relationship with you”. This information is fairly routine and expected on a college campus, however, it also states that while on Geneseo’s wifi connection, the school can monitor a student’s interests, by tracking where and for how much time they spend on the Geneseo campus website. “SUNY Geneseo may also use Google AdWords to advertise across the Internet. AdWords remarketing will display relevant ads based on what parts of the Geneseo website you have viewed, by placing a cookie on your machine”. Geneseo’s CIT not only has personal information of every student (which is to be expected in an institution that is being held accountable for the well being of thousands of people), but is also tracking the habits of their students while on their website in order to further market ads to the students. When I first decided to go to Geneseo, I did not realize that they would be farming my data, in order to advertise products which they would profit from. My gut reaction to this fact was one of disgruntled annoyance, and a sense of betrayal. Many questions are raised by this privacy policy Geneseo has stated. One of these being: When engaged in academic partnership, or even simply considering academic partnership, what must a student do to make sure they have balanced the risks and rewards of academic partnership? 

In the quest of answering a question such as this, and in the quest furthering my own thinkING, I turned to a text my INTD 105 class read earlier in the semester. This text is Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild, which Butler describes as “a coming-of-age story in which a boy must absorb disturbing information and use it to make a decision that will affect the rest of his life”. The story itself follows a young human- whose race is referred to in the text as “Terrans”- named Gan as he and his family live on a planet alien to Terrans in a reservation. One of the natives of the planet, and in many ways a guardian of Gan and his family is named T’Gatoi. T’Gatoi is a respected, and important political figure on the planet which they reside, and offers Gan and his family protection and residency, in exchange for one thing. T’Gatoi only requires that Gan be the host for her eggs, so she can maintain the population of her species, known as the Tlic. This is actually something somewhat commonplace on the planet, Tlics engage in agreements with Terrans that entail that a man becomes “pregnant” (or more accurately a host) for the Tlic’s young. 

At the beginning of the story, Gan is actually content to be a part of this social contract, to which he was born into. Although his sister wanted to be selected for the “honor” of being the host of a Tlic child, it was Gan who was selected. Gan notes that whenever he is asked whether or not he is scared of T’Gatoi and the idea of being a host by Terrans he responds in the same way: “I’m told I was first caged within T’Gatoi’s many limbs only three minutes after my birth. A few days later, I was given my first taste of egg.”(Butler 8). Gan explains that he is not afraid of T’Gatoi and the nature of his social contract because he was indoctrinated at such an early age. Further, Gan notes that if his brother had been immersed in the life of a Terran host at a young age as well, he would be more comfortable with the nature of the social agreement. “Even my brother who had somehow grown up to fear and distrust the Tlic could probably have gone smoothly into one of their families if he had been adopted early enough.” (9). 

This content opinion quickly changes when Gan witnesses the “birth” of a Tlic from a host named Bram Lomas. It is on this occasion that Gan sees the full scope of what his social contract entails. “I felt as though I were helping her torture him, helping her consume him. I knew I would vomit soon, I didn’t know why I hadn’t already.”(15 ). When faced with the scope and severity of what he would go through, Gan is forced to reconsider the contract he was so blindly indoctrinated in. The new found information that Bram’s labor entails adds an unseen clause to Gan’s future. Gan must make careful consideration of his options: go through this terrible ordeal to make sure his family is guaranteed safety by T’Gatoi from the other Tlic, or run from the pain of the ordeal but risk the safety and security of his family. Although Gan inevitably chooses to become T’Gatoi’s host, there is an important lesson which can be learned from either choice he should make. 

The lesson in the story of Bloodchild is that when engaged in social contract it is essential to make sure you know every facet of what you are agreeing to. If the contract is agreed upon prior to an understanding of the contract itself, the person agreeing is put at severe risk of being taken advantage of. For example, if Gan had known the realities of the gruesome nature of his born future when he was younger, perhaps he would have taken different measures in his life and had his position replaced. Of course this is purely speculation, but Gan himself notes the significance of timing when it comes to the release of information when he explains why he wasn’t afraid of T’Gatoi, and his own social contract. Consider this as the “So what?” of this essay. Through the experiences Gan faces in the story, it can be seen that the dissemination of information is essential when engaging in a contract. This idea answers the question raised by Geneseo’s data farming. As a reminder the question was: When engaged in academic partnership, or even simply considering academic partnership, what must a student do to make sure they have balanced the risks and rewards of academic partnership? The answer to this question is the lesson derived from Gan’s experience in Bloodchild. In the case of Geneseo, although I take issue with their use of data farming, the burden was and is on myself to make sure that I know exactly what I am getting into. In the case of Gan, he couldn’t know what he was getting into because he was sheltered from it. In my case however, Geneseo spells out their policies right on their website. It is my obligation to read the information I am provided, and use it to inform any decision I should make regarding my own academic career, and the social contract I have struck with Geneseo. In simpler terms, do my research, read before I sign.

Posted on by Kevin Reed - No Comments on Risk and Reward; Is Academic Partnership for Me?

Risk and Reward; Is Academic Partnership for Me?

Goal-Setting Essay

“If we’re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner.”

The quote above is the course epigraph for INTD 105 section 3 from Octavia Butler’s story, “Bloodchild”. Upon reading this quote I began thinkING about the current state in which many of my peers and I find ourselves as college students. “Bloodchild” alludes many times to themes that I found tied to the experiences of my peers, and myself. 

Butler notes in the afterword of “Bloodchild” one of the themes that the story exemplifies. “It’s a coming-of-age story in which a boy must absorb disturbing information and use it to make a decision that will affect the rest of his life” (Butler). “Bloodchild” tracks a story of a young man’s struggle in deciding his future. This decision is not described in this quote but what is important to note is the fact that this unknown decision will “affect the rest of his life”. This decision, in that sense, is not that unlike the decision may of my peers have to face. I personally find myself content with the academic partnership I have with Geneseo. However, I can, to the best of my ability, describe my brother’s college experience.

My brother was not the best student in high school. Although a social savant who could make everyone his friend or follower, he did not take to studying or doing school work. He saw more value in making personal connections and making allies with those around him. This is not to say my brother is unintelligent by any means, no, my brother is vastly smarter than me in the social arena. My brother was a Machiavellian figure, in terms of his understanding of how people work. 

Despite his social genius, he did not know what he wanted to do for a living. My brother decided to take a risk and spend money to go to college, not sure footed in what he wanted to study. A year or so later, my brother was failing classes, flexing his social-muscles at parties, and on his way to leaving without a degree. Much of this was to the chagrin of my mother, who did not care if my brother went to college, but was concerned that he was wasting precious time and money floundering in something that just wasn’t for him. My brother dropped out and started working in the restaurant industry, where he climbed his way to the top of a series of fine dining restaurants in the city of Rochester. My brother is debt free, managing two successful restaurants, and making much more than many of his college educated peers. My brother knew people, so an education in statistics, or any number of other courses were not valuable to his skill set. My brother took the risk of going to college and starting an academic partnership but it was not worth it for him.

Some time after seeing my brother’s tumultuous path, it was my time to make a decision about my future. I knew that if I wanted to go to college I needed to know what I wanted to get out of my education first. I spent some time thinking and determined that I would like to go into English teaching. My thought process was that I would have summers off to pursue music, I would have a job out of college based on connections I have, and by going to a great SUNY school like Geneseo, I wouldn’t incur a great deal of debt. These reasons combined with my love of language and literature led me to my decision, which so far seems to be a good one. 

However, I had the benefit of being able to see what my older siblings went through, and learn from their successes and mistakes. For many college students, they are the first people in their family to go to college, or at least the first of their siblings. Many students are encountering a world they may not be totally prepared for. 

The word “risk” is one I noted in the course epigraph. It prompted me to begin thinking about the risks us college students find ourselves in. Many of us students find ourselves in the unique position of being tied into college contracts, and financial agreements the second we enter “adulthood”. Despite being fresh out of the nest, we are expected to take that risky leap of faith, trusting that college is best for us, without any evidence to look to. The majority of students have never had to sign life changing contracts, many of us were never taught how to defend ourselves from those who may take advantage of us financially.

Many of the ideas “Bloodchild” raises discussing coming of age, and risk, in conjunction with my own personal experiences of academic partnership made me think of the allegory of the cave. For those of you who do not know, the allegory of the cave, is an allegorical theory by Plato that discusses the “effect of education and the lack of it on our nature”. In summary the allegory is as follows: prisoners are chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see, from where they are chained, is the wall of the cave in front of them. There is a fire behind the prisoners that casts shadows on the wall they are facing. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a walkway, along which people can walk behind the prisoners, casting shadows on the wall. The prisoners are unable to see these people, in reality, only seeing what the shadow depicts. Because the prisoners can only see the shadows, they only understand this to be their reality, when in fact it is just what they can see. Plato notes that if somehow, a prisoner can free themselves and walk out of the cave they can either become blinded by the light of true reality and return to the cave, or their eyes will adjust and they can accept the sunlight. The analogy here is that the cave is ignorance, lack of knowledge, and education is the process of freeing oneself from the chains of ignorance. The sunlight is knowledge of reality, which we can accept and live in the light of day, or reject and return to the cave.

Please excuse that long tirade of explanation, but it is a mistake to assume everyone’s knowledge of Plato’s allegory. You may be asking, “who cares?”. I will try to answer that for you to the best of my ability, giving it the “old college try”, as it is said. Right now my fellow students and I are at the edge of the cave. We must decide for ourselves whether or not an academic partnership is worth the risk it may cause, whether we should step out of the cave into the light that is academic partnership. For myself and many of my peers the answer to this question can only be obtained through experience and time, but hopefully this course can help my peers and myself come closer to our answer.