Tag Archives: identity

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 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 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 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.