Open Your Minds

Most of the college students I've met are all the same. There are two different styles to their learning habits: closed minded or conflict oriented. Either the student has no care in the world, or they take every opportunity to argue with other students and the instructor.

I won’t disguise my true character in this blog. My learning style is more of a ‘no care in the world perspective’, but that’s why I decided to write a blog of this nature, so we can all learn from each other and create new learning habits. My personal learning habits are usually to do the work and make a good grade. I’m not much for classroom discussions, or any type of classroom interaction for that matter. It wasn’t until last week that I realized sometimes it is good to have classroom discussion, so you can learn from your classmates. Sharing our ideas and concerns about issues helps us form better perspectives of our own.

Last week was the first week of the spring semester. I started a class that thrives on class discussion. Without our discussions the course wouldn’t make any sense. A lot of controversial topics come up in the class. Anything from race to abortion could be discussed during any given class. Normally during class discussion I just sit back and listen to what everyone else has to say, but not in this class. My motto has always been “I speak when I have something important to say.” In this class I feel like what I have to say is important. Everyone should feel like that. If you have something important to say, then you should share it.

Granted you shouldn’t comment on every subject. That is a characteristic of a conflict oriented person. They think they know everything so they consume class time with their poorly structured views on every subject. There is no way someone could know enough about every issue, and have a logical opinion on the situation, but for things that you are familiar with and have serious feelings about, you should share those feelings. It’s when we share that we enlighten other people and open up a gate way for them to form their own opinions.

The main thing we as students need to open our minds about during class discussion is the teacher’s point of view. Sometimes teachers aren’t really stating how they feel about the situation, a lot of times they are trying to provoke new thoughts in their students. For example, a sociology teacher isn’t going to give their true beliefs concerning religion, because sociology is the study of social behavior in society. It deals solely with facts. Most Christian beliefs are based on faith, not fact. So, if a sociology teacher tells you that God isn’t real because there are no true facts that say he is, he is correct. From a sociological stand point that statement is true. We have to look at discussions from that subject’s stance. All emotions aside, and only give real facts or real life experiences.

My point is that as college students we should be prepared to speak our minds when it is in our best interest and the best interest of other students to share our educational opinions.