Michaela's blog

I thought that the forum was pretty enlightening. I got the chance to be in a group with Angie Sheets, the director of Residential Life on campus, who had some very interesting ideas. She was the only non-student in the "Dorm" corner when we were asked where we felt most comfortable, and later explained that this was because the dorms are her domain, where she is the top of the chain, and where she has the most power to help students. She also brought up, in our conversation about when we felt we were in the most classed situation on campus, that she goes to the Board of Trustees meeting, and often feels out of place, especially when they are discussing what they will use our endowment toward, since she said she often feels that more of it should go into financial aid. Another interesting point that she made was that she felt in the least-classed environment during the faculty/staff kids Halloween party, where everyone is there for a common purpose, and there is not as much hyperawareness of who is in charge, has the most ownership, etc.

I thought that we could take this final idea and bring it into more events on campus, which are open to the faculty and staff, without the stress that our forum seemed to create for some people that each of us invited. I think that maybe, by not directly asking about class, but instead by sharing experiences with people from all over the campus community, we can become more exposed to their points of view.

I chose to focus my essay on the my hallway in Rock, and the way it fits into mine and my friends and hallmates academic and classed lives because it is a space where those often individual pursuits become shared. In the hallway, we participate in intellectual conversations and help one another with homework. We are de-classed and re-classed as we leave our possessions behind in our rooms (save for our laptops, often), but we are in a very privileged place together of being able to attend Bryn Mawr and spend the amount of time that we do (which is a lot) just socializing outside of our rooms.

Throughout this class, I have had my expectations challenged, my perspectives broadened and my writing matured. The in-class discussions that have been facilitated by our reading of many different educational theorists have brought into question for my peers and me what we really believe about education when it comes to voicing these attitudes, and often taking one side or another in our Barometer exercises. I have heard from many students whose educational experience seems to have started a world away from mine, but is now converging as we share the classroom. And, through reflection and conference, I think that my writing has improved, or at least that I have been made more aware of the sort of pratfalls I have been conditioned to make by the way I’d been taught to write prior to college.

I'm very excited for our upcoming trip to the high school--I love seeing new learning environments, and, this being a selective public school, I am eager to see what sort of differences there are here as compared to a regular public school, without an entrance exam. That being said, I don't know that I support public charter schools, as we call them in DC. I see their merit, in bringing students who don't have the opportunity to go to private school to a higher-level educational enivronment. But I also see how they might be detrimental to communities, where the kids who are left behind in the local public schools are even more likely to be neglected, with more resources going to help the kids who are already succeeding rather than going to those who have not yet reached success.

Can education create a level playing field? For Kai Davis, education simply reminded her of the lower playing field that she was expected to live, work, and die at. Her white classmates were surprised to see that she could excel in the AP classes that they believed to be above her level, creating a dichotomy of "us" versus "them" wherein she was out of the place that had been prescribed for her by her pigmentation. She also seemed disappointed with the reaction of her African American peers, feeling like "having a 4.0 made [her] 4 shades lighter," setting her apart from the "normal" black students who struggled to stay in school and keep their grades up. Being smart was a "white" trait, one that Kai was seemingly betraying her race to have.

It's interesting to think about whether affirmative action is a force to level the playing field, or whether it further separates African American students from their white peers. Are we really encouraging diversity? Or does it create isolation within top universities for diverse students, while leaving other members of their race behind who have not met the bar to come and be isolated?

While I am firmly pro-affirmative action, it's troubling to think about the way diverse students are regarded when outside of their "normal" playing fields.

As I wrote my essay on access to education, the idea struck me that if we do not appreciate our access to education, in its various forms (both formal and informal), we are missing out even more than if we did not have this access at all. This is especially evident in the case of Luttrell's students--women who undervalued their own common sense, strengthening their desire for a formal education, in Luttrell's class, to help them "become somebody". These women did make significant contributions to their families and to their workplace environment (even when it was a more menial job than that of more formally educated women). However, because they felt a need to be up to par with women like Wendy Luttrell, who could make a name for themselves on the basis of their smarts and their "somebody"-ness, they seemed to want to cut ties with their past education. It costs more than just money to have access to formal education, especially in the case of Doreen's son Tony, who probably would not be pushed to do work in the fields that he showed interest and promise in because his predilection towards them was viewed as mere common sense. In order to truly have an "education that matters" as Edmundson would say, I believe the learner needs to appreciate both what they learn and what they come in already knowing.

Attached is my educational access map, from birth to BMC!

My educational autobiography followed the support that my parents, in particular my mom, have given me throughout my life, in both academic and personal ways. Their support has made me a better student and a better person, and, after writing it, I feel exceptional gratitude towards them that I feel I may never have adequately expressed when I was at home with them. Writing it also made me think about teachers who have been similarly inspiring in my education, and about those with whom I wish I had had a better experience. I wonder whether I would be here, at Bryn Mawr, and at the educational and emotional levels that I have reacher, had I not been under the terrific tutelage of, for example, Ms. Logan, my 10th grade English teacher, who gave me equal parts caring and tough love for my extreme case of wordiness. Or, where would I be without the support of my 11th grade physics teacher, who was incredibly patient and courteous to me, despite my penchant to visit him on a weekly basis to go over tough material. It was him who gave me the courage to ask for help from my teachers when I feel as though I am drowning in the coursework, and it was him who devotedly worked through a snowstorm to help me get my college recommendations in, even as he had moved on to work in another school in the county. Overall, writing my story has reminded me of all the people to whom I owe my educational success, and of all the hugs I owe when I get home for Thanksgiving :)

My name is Michaela, and I am from Maryland, about a stone's throw away from our nation's capital, DC. I have one sister, Abby, who graduated from BMC in 2010, and who, along with the rest of my immediate family, I am very close with. I have lived in the same house my whole life, and gone to both a few so-so private schools to my better years of education in the public school district, regarded nationally as very competitive and advanced. I have always been studious, and so my education at my high school was very satisfying and rewarding. However, even as I received (or claimed, as we are now tasked to do) my education there, I noticed the discrepancies in the underlying realities of how well diverse groups of students were expected to, and thus did, perform in their schoolwork. Low expectations all too often led to low grades,scores, etc. in a sort of vicious cycle.
This is one of the many reasons that I am so excited to come to Bryn Mawr. Despite our socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and other classifications that we discussed in class yesterday, we are all here to claim a terrific liberal arts education. Though we may at times define ourselves by these classifications, I believe that within the classroom, our devotion to learning will outwit these pre-set boundaries, and give us the opportunity to express our unique perspectives in the form of discussion, writing, etc.