Class Workshop: Ownership

One question that came up that really resonated within me throughout the workshop was: do we need to feel ownership over something in order to find comfortability? To me, it was interesting that some people said that they felt comfortable in the space that is Bryn Mawr without feeling ownership. The underlying principles of ownership include having freedom within the control of over one’s environment which I had felt was necessary in order to feel in responsible for one’s actions and their consequences and find purpose from that. In this way, the outcome that would make more sense to me that others would feel more productive and comfortable in being in places where they had command. Nonetheless, in trying to relate to those who did not need ownership, I realized that one could also find greater comfort in being in a collaborative community with other people or find productivity in being guided which made me think of the collaborative nature of school and the individual agency of the student. 

Up until then, I hadn’t realized that comfortability held different meanings to everyone: it made me wonder about the different comforts that each class (social economic, gender, race, ability, ethnicity, etc.) nurtures for its constituents. do some cultures and classes nurture a community based on individual autonomy or collaboration? How is each beneficial? How do these clash or work together?