Chris Phillibert Reflections and suggestions (8)

After reading my first blog, I think my writing sounds a little too stiff and methodical. The thought process was clearly traceable but I think my style of writing reflects someone who was trying to cling too hard to the question in order not to divert from the point. I think now I'm a little more comfortable putting my own thoughts and ideas into the blog instead of simply answering the question in an overly logical manner. When attempting to define a nation I was thinking too abstractly. I referred more to the establishment of institutions and how they will serve the people they represent instead of focusing on things like what the reasoning behind forming a nation may be and how a nation represents itself in the daily lives of the people who choose to live within it. Again, this comes from trying to hard to focus on answering the question directly instead of thinking about the context of the question in what the instructor was trying to teach or what I was supposed to learn from the question itself.

I think my community and to some extent myself view the information we have learned so far as if observing animals or other aquatic life at an aquarium. We observe and are fascinated by what we see and may study the things in front of us intensely, but after this process is finished we simply move forward leaving what we just observed behind us. I think this approach may be useful for simply being aware of information, but there is an alternative that would work better than the aquarium approach. I'm not quite sure what would definitely work for every student because of course every student is different. However, moving beyond simply observing and studying information and phenomena is certainly necessary, the information would become so much more meaningful if the students found a way to incorporate the information into their minds and lives to make them better people.

A project I feel would be vital to the positive imagination of the community would be a painting session. The students would be given canvasses, paint, and other necessary supplies to construct a painting of whatever they wish with the supplies they have. When the students are finished, they would have to explain why they painted what they painted as well as what they want the students to take away from their painting. I think this would build our community around the common values of imagination and creativity similar to how the looting and ransacking of the minority-owned business united the skinheads in American X around the common cause of hating minorities and blaming them for unfavorable circumstances in their lives. This painting activity would also inspire us to work together. When the time comes to explain your painting, students will work together to learn more about each other and be united by creative interaction. This is similar to how the people who attempted to block Larry Hillblom's estate from being inherited by his children were united by their collective greed and were encouraged to work together in order to grow themselves by being enriched financially.