Ok so today we talked about the essay “Against School.” Let me first say that I was annoyed at Gatto; he complains about being bored of teaching yet he wins Teacher of the Year his final year of teaching. Makes no sense to me. But anyways. What really got to me today was we went around the room and  named different works of literature we all read for school. It’s so amazing how there were a lot of pieces most of us read and then there were some that no one else read. After that, I actually talked with Hannah about the different books we read and we discussed what we liked about them. The symbolism, the meanings behind the plots, etc. It was so fascinating to me that we could have conversations about these great works; it actually made me miss high school and the different memories associated with the works. For example, I read The Crucible when I was in 10th grade and we put on a mock trial putting Abigail Williams on trial. It was so much fun, even though for 2 weeks my class was divided between the prosecution and the defense. I can say for a fact that we were not bored. For me, moments like that (and the memories that are made from them) remind why, as much as I get frustrated with it, I will never get bored with school. Those are the moments that make this “required education” worth something. One thing that we touched on in class was that we could have read these timeless works on our own; however, we would not have given these amazing works the time of day if we did it on our own. We needed a spark of interest. The funny part is we found that in the one of the most boring institutes: school.

Also, this week we went to the library to further research or even determine our subjects for our final projects. I went in the library with not even a clue as to what to write about. I am so used to be given a guideline. But after Dr. Seaman finished talking with us, little things were starting to piece together. For me, I was interested in Christianity and culture (I am a Christian), but I wanted to take it further. So what about evangelism and culture? Too broad still. So I began to think: What is big in our culture? Then it hit me: social networking sites. My topic is going be how people are using social networking sites (Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) to share the gospel and the effects it has on others. Any thoughts? Let me know!