December 3rd

No one is perfect. That is the simple way of putting it. I've said some things that I regret, and today was a very good class to reflect on how the semester's gone. I have actually learnt a lot about myself. I found out that I am too worried about imposing my own views on others that I don't even make mine clear! I mostly do this because I realize I am heavily opinionated, so please, feel free to try and engage in conversation about politics, you'll see for yourself how bad it gets...

I found myself getting frustrated with myself in today's class, because I had been blind to what I was doing in many cases, but at least my eyes have been opened to my own mistakes. The best learning comes from mistakes right?

Friday October 30th

Over the past couple weeks I have learned a lot about the way we look at things throughout life. The idea of "lenses" has been expanded on as we've looked at Doubt, and put it in to practice as we looked at The Tibetan Book of the Dead. I tried to see how people could believe what the Buddhists of Tibet do, tried to put myself in their mindset. While I doubt I was completely successful I like to think I have made a lot of progress.
In the saga of Doubt, I have now come to the conclusion that I don't need to know if Father Flynn was guilty. It changes depending on the production of the play. I felt like the play made it seem to me that he was guilty, without question, and when I read it, I felt like he probably was, but like Sister Aloysius states at the end of the play, I had doubts. Whereas when I saw the movie, I knew Father Flynn was innocent, and Sister Aloysius seemed like a stubborn, naive, power hungry, witch. While I'm glad we went into such detail concerning the play, I am very glad it might be over for the class.
In Journalism, where doubt has not reached! I have learned much of the ways of interviewing people, including that it is also in the way they say what they do, not simply what they say, so I should record the interview. This also allows for more to be done in a shorter time, because the interviewed doesn't need to wait for the interviewer to write everything they say down.
I am having a lot of fun in Truth in Society, and I'm looking forward to having the classes all combined again.

Sunday October 11th

The past week we spent in our separated classes, and I must say I miss our one large class idea. While the classes were more focused on their subjects, it felt more like every other class that I have here, and to be honest, there were moments that I thought I was back in High School.

The writing we have been doing on "Doubt" has been very helpful in getting the full meaning of the play. I was impressed with it to begin with, but now I think I understand more the meaning behind it. If it weren't for these classes I would have just dismissed it and been convinced that Father Flynn was abusing the child, never thinking of the alternatives...

I've enjoyed my Aquinas classes more than any other the past week, but not as much as I did the weeks before.

Entry for Week 1-2

I came into the program with high expectations, because it is more or less the reason why I'm here. I must admit, from what I've seen so far I am definitely looking forward to the coming school year. I learned a lot about what to expect from the class, but the first week also brought about many questions, which I'm sure will be answered as the year progresses. I really like the idea that just getting the work done gets you a mark, this method takes off the pressure of punctuation, and making sure everything is completely spotless, which allows for more time researching and making sure you get what you want to say across, and not what you think the teachers want to hear.

I really enjoy the group discussions, I find that it is sometimes far to easy to just fade away, and not be a part of the class (the cue cards also help make sure you pay attention throughout the entire class discussion). I enjoy having smaller group talks, I find the smaller groups get to the point much faster than the large group, so the discussions are, for the most part, more rewarding.

I really like the people I've met in the class, and I'm interested to see how the class turns out when we split it into the three subjects.