A Little Early to the Party

My reflection post for this week is entirely unconventional. First of all, I'm writing my reflection instead of a substantive blog post on economic growth because I’ve already hit the 9 post rules. Second, I will be posting it on Monday instead of the usual Thursday schedule. I would like to think I am just following in the quirky footsteps of my fellow cohort member, Holt, but in reality, I am just missing the rest of this week's discussion in class. Being that I will not be present for the second half of our class time this week, I will focus entirely on the events that transpired in class today. Overall, there was a general disconnect between the audience (our class) and the article's content. Educational standards vary greatly across the country, and different states prioritize certain subjects. Some of this disconnect can also be attributed to the difference in public vs. private school curriculums. From what I witnessed and heard, many of my cohort members had never taken an economics course before and were not able to connect terms from the reading. This could be a lesson in itself, how different states prioritize economics in the classroom, but I won't go into that now. 

While some were daunted by the economic terminology that dominated the conversation, others, including myself, struggled to define growth accurately. Ideas of growth could even be related to our discussion on the malleability of security and how the defining characteristics of the word evolve over time. The disconnect for many of our cohort hindered these further discussions on neoclassical, neoliberal, or multi-dimensional growth because economics is such a complex subject. If you don’t know the baseline vocabulary, economics can become one of the most difficult academic fields. Having the “5-minute” background discussion was entirely helpful to our eventual discussions. While I like the overall structure of classroom discussions, I really do think that lecturing can be useful in teaching ideas like those posed in the Allan reading. I grew up with the lecture style taught in every class, in addition to my dad lecturing about the complex relations between Russia and the Us or the rise of Tito in the Balkans to my sisters and me almost every night. Some habits die hard though, as I learn to love class discussions more, I still love having lecture-based classes (because in reality, I’m not an expert here). 

I’ve already addressed some of this absence in previous reflection posts, but I would just like to restate that sometimes events in our lives are entirely out of our control and that we can do nothing but go with the flow. With that being said though, I get to enjoy some time with my family and dog and I could not be more excited! Although American is an exciting place to go to school and DC is amazing in itself, nothing can replace home-cooked meals, sleeping in my queen-sized bed, and not having to share a shower with 20+ other girls. While I have to go home for a not so positive issue, I’m ecstatic to see my mom, my sister, my dog Shiner, and my friends who I so dearly miss. Although this sounds all fun, I will definitely ensure that I make time for my World Politics assignments, especially starting The Conquest for America so that I don’t fall behind while I am back in the great state of Texas!!!