I came into college with a solid background in English and topics of civic life. My high school classes were rich in discussion and I learned how to convey my ideas. I also had a friend group that was aware of social/political issues and hanging out with these people greatly influenced my knowledge as a civilian. I felt well-prepared for this sequence of RCL courses.
As for my first semester, the style in that class was much different than this semester’s. It was more formal with a mix of lectures and a few canvas quizzes, while still having the standard projects. We defined important terminology that relates to civic life like ethos, pathos, logos, and exigence. I enjoyed my experience and learned a lot about quality rhetoric.
In this semester, we were able to apply these tools and engage in deeper conversations. The biggest difference between that class and this one was the lowering of walls. I liked that people could say their genuine feelings/opinions and not be afraid to do so. This wasn’t as easy in my last semester class as it was more formal. However, I’d argue that this makes my experience more valuable as I was able to engage in two completely different classroom environments.
For my opinions on civic life, last semester’s course didn’t change my views much. Like I said, I learned about what goes into effective rhetoric and we looked at important examples of this in history, but my views on civic life didn’t change. In this semester, my views have changed so much. I was able to interact with people that were vastly different and I think this has to do with the meeting time of the class. A class that meets three days a week at 10AM (my last semester course) attracts much different people than a class that meets for two days a week at 3PM. Our class was filled with intelligent people and a couple strong personalities. Conversations were honest and often depressing which I find to be reflective of our generation.
So for civic life, I now find myself being less motivated to go out and make a difference. I don’t think my opinion or any individual person’s matters as much as we’d like to think. I felt certain that I wanted to have a family and bring children into this world, but after engaging in this new environment and talking about the many negatives of our world, I’m not sure I’d like to anymore. It’s been a transformative year and I’m certainly not as optimistic as I once was. I don’t say this to be negative; I am just being honest.