618-Post and responses
Binxin Li
week 3
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For this week's study, the most interesting thing touch my heart is the speech from TED we saw in the class. In this speech, the speaker talks about one important issue"don't ask where I am from, ask where I am local". For my personal experience, I was born in China and lived here for 18 years until I graduated from high school. After that, I came to the US and stay there for almost seven years. For me, Mt.Pleasant seems like my another hometown since I have been there for so long times. I lived in Mt.Pleasant just like local people, I like American culture, I like American food, I like the quiet small town, however, this does not means I don't like my hometown, Beijing.
The same experience I have tried is in Japan. I have been to join a study abroad in Hikone, which is a centuried small town near Kyoto. I have been there for half a year, I ate traditional Japanese food, I enjoyed Japanese festivals, I visited local temples, and try to explore some local culture, I almost lived just like what local people do during that time. In my opinion, people should not pay too much attention to other people's background, everyone in every country are same. The only important thing is if one person shows respect to local people and local culture.
Dannah Gunn
Week 3 Discussion
After lecture, I watched the first episode of "College Behind Bars". What amazed me was the outlook of these prisoners. They all said they knew they were capable of learning just as much as the guy going to a normal university. Many of the prisoners have been incarcerated since their late teens. One guy said that he could either sit in his cell, eat, sleep, and just lay there... or he could be learning about the nation and gaining something out of this. They can study to receive their Associate's and Bachelor's degree.
Most of the incarcerated were men. Their cell consisted of many books, photographs on the walls, a desk well organized with their papers sitting on them. They had access to computers to type their papers and print them out.
During this episode, I was thinking about the professors. Most professors would prefer to work at a university rather than in a jail with criminals. I wonder what their selection process was for their position. I wonder what the whole hiring process was like... from recruiting to firing. There was even a Chinese teacher, which was amazing because I'm Chinese!
I recommend you watch at least the first episode. There are only 4 episodes all 55 minutes long. It is an eye opener as a college student (or anyone for that matter).
Let me know if any of you watch(ed) it!
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