THANK GOODNESS THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT
A Reflective Essay
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I really wish there was a middle ground between this and the way the Honors class is taught. This class is so open-ended that it is uninspiring. The Honors class is so constricted that it is painful.
Both, I think, have something fundamentally wrong with them. This essay, for instance. I don't get it. Why am I writing it? I don't understand why I am writing it. What is it for? I don't know how it will be graded or how it is supposed to compliment my learning in this class.
I had a similar issue with the Honors class. Why was more than one book assigned at one time? Why was there only one single assignment, a research paper, during the entire term? Why did we even bother reading any of the huge, long, dull, centuries-old texts if there were no measures to hold us accountable?
In a perfect situation, whatever assignment or task I have to do, there would be a good reason for it and I would know what it was without having to ask for it inside an essay that really (probably) is meant for something else.
Changing veins, I think there is too much going on in this class. Look at it this way. We have a group presentation project. We have a research paper. We have four books that we must read over the course of the term. All together, there are three major tasks assigned for this term. Are they integrated? How? I wish I knew, because if I did it would mean that I was doing it, not for something unclear and ambiguous, but for something clear and attainable.
In any case, my own style of learning does not entirely welcome the format of this class. The books are going by too fast. I would much rather spend more time on them and go over their details in better depth. Even so, I am getting a lot out of them.
At this point in the term, with only half the class gone by, it is hard to reflect on things that are yet to come. Thank goodness this is a first draft. But why does a reflective essay need a first draft? Doesn't the process of reflection mean to look back at something in its entirety?
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