Of things I have learned in ENGL 203 reader and text, my overall knowledge of classic literature has been improved. However, this is not the truly novel aspect of what my time in this course has taught me. The real value I have obtained from my time spent in course has been from my new peers who have exposed me to new a variety of ideas and perspectives I had not previously been immersed in. Crucial elements of our coursework being identity and the reader, I have been shown a good deal of alternative points of view and outlooks different from my own. The ability to understand text and information from the different backgrounds and lives of others is characteristic which cannot be understated in its importance to me as I pursue a career in federal law enforcement. Conflict resolution and compassion for others as a law enforcement agent requires to no little degree, the willingness to hear others out on their perceptions and understand the motivations of others. As such, I have been glad to share a classroom with people who are from vastly differing backgrounds, ideologies, and cultures than my own.
Growing up in a small town in upstate New York, the people who I would be surrounded by were primarily like me. With the vast majority of students in my highschool being white, lower or middle class and growing up in the same small town. As homogenous as my home town is, the only opinions represented in class discussions were of my own shared experiences at that point. In my freshman year of college however, discussion has been a much more interesting and varied experience with a larger selection of people to share dialogue with.
This exposure to new ideas through dialogue came both as a result of discussions on readings of our assigned texts, and in the form of tangential rants by my peers loosely related to what we were doing for classwork. For instance, being able to discuss Walden by Henry David Thoreau with people from urban centers like New York City gave me new takes on the way transcendentalist literature could be viewed, critiqued, and praised which I had not heard before. Attending class discussions and engaging my classmates in dialogue whether we agreed on matters or not built upon the foundations of knowledge I had gained in my mandatory studies in a much more engaging way. A significant difference between the type of people I had interacted with prior to coming to Geneseo and after, is that in high school, people near universally did not want to be there. The classmates I have been able to speak with throughout this course have been enthusiastic and interested in the current subject matter, willing to contribute in varying degrees to class discussions as well as one on one dialogue with me about what we are reading. It is a great thing to be able to find common ground with people who are different from you when you are working to unpack information and answer questions together.
I regard my time in this course as being worthwhile because of the people I have met and been able to work alongside. The relationships I have found with some of my classmates has not been limited to class hours as when I run into them on campus we have already been personally introduced to each other through group work and tasks requiring us to have dialogue. That’s truly the most novel part of the course to me, the ability to have dialogue and discuss ideas with others who despite our differences are all reading the same text. The ideas represented in these dialogues have been memorable and impactful to me, even going so far as to change my outlook in many ways throughout the semester. Overall I regard the course as being a positive experience because I have been able to use the skills I have learned previously to connect with others and discuss literature which I enjoyed reading with others who have enjoyed reading it as well. Regardless of our backgrounds or perspectives on the text, our abilities as readers allowed us to combine our efforts in uncovering literary techniques and interesting facts about the writers and poets behind them. Working in groups to find examples of our given topics and compounding these examples into workable group perspectives after discussion was extremely satisfying. Looking back at our documents in the shared google folders, it is clear to see where each person in that group contributed a working component to the larger argument put forth in class discussions. Being able to work with others like this has given me a number of opportunities to debate and find common ground with my classmates in a way which simply would not occur in a conventional lecture setting.