Category Archives: Weekly Reflections

Weekly Reflection 11

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This week I read the New York Times article, “Race and the Standardized Testing Wars.”  The article highlights some of the internal conflicts ongoing with minority groups who believed the parents allowing their children to opt out of standardized testing was a form of white privilege.  Recently however, minority groups and more parents in general have started opposing all the standardized testing for various reasons including resulting cut backs to enriching programs like art/music, and the damaging effects students’ test scores can have on self-esteem.

I took a personal interest in this article because I have always hated standardized testing.  I normally take longer than other students to complete any prompts/questions because I like to take more time to develop all my thoughts and go back and check my answers.  Therefore, I have never scored well on timed standardized tests.  More than once I have felt like a total failure for not receiving marks in the “proficient” or “advanced” category because I did not even get to finish my test.  I think this article brings up a lot of important points because it is amazing still to me how much my Mississippi public school system emphasized state testing.  It created such a terrible environment because I felt like my teachers were trying to program me to get a certain number of questions correct on a test as opposed to trying to teach me any real knowledge or make sure that I understood key concepts.  I understand that the standardized tests can have benefits, but I think school districts and the people calling for more and more tests should listen to the students’ thoughts as well.  I enjoyed reading this article because it is nice to know this topic is starting to get more attention.

Weekly Reflection 10

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This week I read The New York Times article, “Ecuador Earthquake Kills Hundreds in Huge Wave of Collapses.”   The article described the magnitude of the earthquake Ecuador and its surrounding countries were hit with as well as the powerful aftershocks. It detailed the terrible destruction, heartbreak, and overall anguish people in many parts of the country are facing. Hundreds of people and animals were killed, thousands were injured, and hundreds of homes and buildings destroyed along with power outages and shortages of food, water, and medical supplies.

Articles about devastating natural disasters always hit very close to home for me. I can’t help but think of over 10 years ago when I was still little when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast area. The destruction was massive, overwhelming, and debris was everywhere. Many people died from the flooding, and many lost their homes and were left with nothing. The response time was slow, and it took years for the businesses and homes to come back and for people on the Gulf Coast to regain their lives. Reading over this article was just another reminder and chance for me to reflect on how fortunate I am that our house was not destroyed and all of my family members stayed safe. It’s easy to read an article about a disaster in a foreign country and not think too much about it, but going through a similar event really brings the scene to life and helps me relate to what others are going through. A small part of me is fortunate for Hurricane Katrina because it helps me to be an empathetic person and never take what I have for granted.

Weekly Reflection 9

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This week I chose to write about The New York Times article, “The New Catholic Truce.”  The article details some of the ongoing internal conflicts that are occurring inside of the Roman Catholic Church.  The author also discusses the pope’s new letter on marriage and family, “The Joy of Love,” which encourages readmission of the remarried and divorced to come and receive communion and discusses family structure.  He interprets this as a more liberal step for the Catholic church.  I chose to read this article because I was interested in reading about how the author would interpret this papal letter. Having been Catholic all my life, I am used to getting a very negative reaction half the time from people when they find out my religion. People typically have some sort of pre-notion that I am bigoted and believe I am self-righteous (which is not true in the slightest.)  So, I was interested in what the author had to say about this letter and how the Church would be portrayed in a national news article. The author was not as bias as I thought and did an okay job of summarizing Pope Francis’ letter- which was relieving to me.  It’s really hurtful to see some of the things published about the Roman Catholic Church in the news and hear about what others believe. On a spiritual level it is very important to me that the Church is taking steps to modernize and be as welcoming as possible.  I think this letter from Pope Francis shows that the Roman Catholic church is evolving and truly is showing people that all are welcome. While I may not be directly affected by this letter, it still affects me indirectly because it’s helping to shape people’s idea of my religion and what it says about me.

 

Weekly reflection 8

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This week for my reflection I read The New York Times article, “My Banished Brother.” This was an article in the health section, detailing the author’s personal story about how she dealt with having a brother who was “banished” because he was born severely disabled and had Down Syndrome. The author’s parents believed that having a “vegetable” son was a sign of punishment or wrong doing from God and sent him away to be a ward of the state.   They did not let their other three children ask about their brother, Jimmy. The only time the author visited her brother was right before he died, but she was able to learn about who he was and how he impacted others’ lives. The author is now living with the regret of not meeting her brother before and not being a part of his life.

While I do not have a sibling who was sent away, I feel I can relate to this article very much still. Learning to value and always cherish your family members no matter what was an important lesson from this article. In my personal life, I worry about losing touch and growing apart from my mom who is six hours away. I have so much schoolwork it is a rare occasion for me to go home, so I constantly feel guilty about not spending more time with her. It is hard sometimes to put aside time for family time, but it is never something I regret doing. This article was a nice reminder for me that not only is it important to accept and embrace differences, but also to cherish your family while you can.

 

Weekly Reflection 7

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This weekend I chose to read the New York Times article, “Donald Trump’s Trail of Comments About Women.” I chose to look at this article with hesitation, but I was genuinely interested in what would be included. The commentary was really just a collection of direct quotes from presidential candidate Donald Trump from as far back as 1991 up till 2015. To summarize, select quotes from Mr. Trump imply that a woman’s value may depend on her appearance, flat-chested women will never be a “10”, and that women should have all of the responsibility in raising the children a couple may have together.

I am a passionate feminist and reading all of this hateful speech coming from the next potential leader of the free world really made me take a step back. I am not writing this to discuss my beliefs; however, this article really made me reflect on certain things in my life. Many of my family members share many of the same thoughts regarding women and have always made it very clear to me through out my life what they thought my role ought to be. Their thoughts pushed me to be the best version of myself and I always set out to prove my worth as a student and community member instead of my worth based on my appearance. However, many other women will continue to believe what their family members/friends may tell them or what they hear coming from a presidential candidate for example. I used to want to prove my worth, but now I realize my actual goal is just to encourage other women to follow what they actually want to do with their lives. Therefore, I find this speech extremely hurtful towards that goal and I have a hard time believing so many people are okay with Mr. Trump’s words.

Weekly Reflection 6

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This weekend I chose to read The New York Times article, “The Man the Founders Feared.” This article was in reference to presidential candidate Donald Trump. While I normally try not to involve myself in arguments and discussions of politics, I still have been following along closely since the first GOP debate when there were 17 candidates because I like to stay informed so that I can be a knowledgeable voter. I tend to avoid certain articles that are obviously strictly one-sided but this one struck my attention because I was interested in knowing the author’s interpretation of what the founding fathers may have thought of Donald Trump. To summarize, the article stated the nation, including all Republicans, should fear his popularity and his (supposed) encouragement of political violence, passion, and love for the country. He spoke of the founding fathers concerns of a political strongman and what Aristotle described as, “the insolence of demagogues.”

While this article/topic may not directly impact my life right now, I still feel it influences my life a good amount. The presidential election is coming up this November and I have to decide which candidate to stand with. I generally see myself as a peacekeeper, so seeing this issue (violence as a result of politics) spur from a presidential candidate is very upsetting to me.  The author’s argument gave me an interesting point of view of this concern. In addition, this issue helps me identify who I am as a person and as a voter and represents what kind of issues I will support or disagree with.

 

Weekly Reflection 5

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This week I chose to read the New York Times article, “She Wanted to Do Her Research. He Wanted to Talk ‘Feelings.’” I was drawn to this article because I thought the title was very unusual and I was interested in finding out what it was about. Professor of geobiology, Hope Jahren, wrote the article discussing reasons she believes behind why many women leave science and STEM fields. The article goes on to address specific examples of one of her students who was emailed by her advisor professing his admiration for her and stating basically she is just going to have to deal with it until one of them leaves. The author highlights other specific examples of similar emails and confrontations made.

As a female going into a STEM field, I found this article very enlightening. While I personally have not experienced any sort of discrimination and/or any uncomfortable confrontations, I realize how this could become such a serious issue. Behavior that may be deemed harmless and romantic in reality just becomes a form of harassment and becomes dreadful for the women who have to deal with it. Reading this article actually made me angry thinking about how much these inappropriate dealings are looked over until far too many women have left their once-beloved fields because they feel so uncomfortable they cannot even do their work. While this may not affect me at the moment, I plan on doing my own undergraduate and graduate research as well as in my professional career and do not think it is fair to have to worry about being harassed.

Weekly Reflection 4

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This week I chose to read the NYT article, “Pastor in China Who Resisted Cross Removal Gets 14 Years in Prison.”  I chose this article because I am devoted to my Christian faith and I was concerned and interested in what had happened to the pastor.  The article states how a protestant pastor and his wife were targeted for resisting orders to remove a cross and received sentences of 14 years and 12 years, respectively.  They were charged with corruption and gathering people to disturb social order and were also penalized with heavy fines and had money taken from them.  The article goes on to detail the additional detainment of a well known Christian lawyer who just so happened to be planning to meet with American state department officials to discuss religious freedom in China.  It is terrifying to think that if I were in another country I could be detained just because I defended my religion.  While I fully understand not all people unite under one faith, it amazes me how little protection some have in other countries and it is difficult for me to comprehend not having full religious freedom. This article made me reflect on the privileges the citizens of the United States enjoy and how much I take my civil rights for granted sometimes.  The government would be in complete control, and I would not be able to speak my mind or practice my faith.  It also made me question why the United States conducts so much business with China when they do not give their citizens religious freedoms and other basic rights.

 

Weekly Reflection 3

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This week I chose to read the New York Times article, “ISIS and the Lonely Young American.” The title of the article caught my attention because like many others, I worry about attacks from this Islamic terror organization and fear the group as a whole. The article was extremely long and detailed the steps of how a twenty-three year-old girl became very close to ISIS fighters and supporters. It detailed her conversion to Islam and how they played into her insecurities and loneliness and constantly spoke with her and sent her gifts to win her over.

This whole article was extremely troubling to me. It makes me empathetic towards those ISIS and radical groups target, but also makes me worry because it could be happening right next to me without me knowing about it−which is a terrifying thought. With all of the technology coming out and new social media, it seems like it will just become easier for these groups to target people who feel isolated.

This article also opened up a new side of thinking for me. I had never thought of terror groups working so hard to “win” people over, or pretending to become friends with those they targeted online. It puts what is going on in today’s times a little easier to understand why and how people are willing to convert to these radical beliefs and travel to Syria and the middle East to join ISIS. It is terrifying to think about this happening to my friends and/or family members.

Weekly Reflection 2

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This week I chose to read the New York Times article, “For World’s Top Gymnast, a Body in Motion and a Mind at Rest.” I am not a big sports fan, but I did competitive gymnastics for many years so this caught my attention. The article was about the 18-year-old U.S. gymnast Simone Biles who has won 14 medals overall. It was a personal story about the stress she is dealing with and how she maintains her composure under the overwhelming pressure that she has to always win.

While Simone and I have different goals, I can still understand what she may be going through. I am under a lot of pressure here at Ole Miss to score high on every test, have a job, and also participate in leadership and extracurricular activities. I have a lot of anxiety, so sometimes it is hard to deal with all of these. When a test is coming up or I am stressed out, it is all too easy to start overthinking and start panicking. The article described how she kept a book with her with a list of goals. However, the goals were only about improving certain things, not goals about winning all of the medals. This really stuck out to me and made me reflect on all of the goals I currently have, and made me re-think some of them. In my biology class for example, instead of worrying about making an A I’m going to focus on keeping up with the readings and following my study schedule. While Simone and I may be different, we have the same fears and I can relate to a lot of the struggles she is currently dealing with.