This quarter, I
have learned a lot, and thought more deeply about issues I previously hadn’t
thought much about at all. I am not going to school to be a teacher, but this
class intrigued me in such a way I wish I had taken more education classes in
my time at Eastern. I learned about wars I had only heard mentioned once or
twice before in my life, and thought much more about how I would ever try to
teach something like that to kids.
The
part that was most difficult for me was reading Sold, and especially trying to
figure out when would be an appropriate age to give that to kids. I have a 12
year old sister, and most of our books, the main child was around that age. It was
difficult to try and wrap my brain around that, and wonder when she would be
mature enough for such heavy books. While Sold was probably the most difficult
text for me to read, it was difficult among all of our books to try to figure
out what is an appropriate age for kids and that topic.
In
relation to work we did in class, I am glad that we did research beforehand on
the area or war/dispute itself. This made me have more background knowledge so I
was not blindly going into the book. The books were also written from the view
of a kid, so it was nice to have background that was written for adults, to
then go in and see how a kid would view that.
A
discussion we had regularly I found interesting was talking about how certain
things relate to us, and if there is something we do similar in the United
States. We often don’t think such terrible things can happen because they don’t
happen here, but when you stop and think about it, we have all of the same
things going on, just in different variations.
This
class has influenced my thinking in how I can be a part of something bigger
than myself, and how I can make a difference in the world. Having the
discussions of how terrible things happen all around the world, as well as here
made me think that there must be a way I can get involved and try to make a
change.
I
have always been interested in sponsoring a child. My sister’s roommate
sponsors one, and is constantly getting updates on how he is doing, and how her
money is so greatly affecting him. He draws pictures for her, and gets pictures
of him monthly. I know this would warm my heart having such a soft spot for
kids. My plan of action following this course, is to start sponsoring a child. When
Sean came to speak to our class, he said that he never believed the commercials on TV
showing the kids so skinny and unhealthy from malnutrition. When he went to a
high poverty level country however, he said it was even worse. This influenced
my decision even more. In all of the books we read, children were the main
focus, with their childhoods being ripped away. If I can help that in any way
possible, I want to.
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