I was doing research for my socratic seminar. I knew what I wanted to write about. The question was, “Is having empathy at odds with American Values?” so of course, I said yes. In my mind, America = Capitalism = sociopathy and oppression. I was looking for ted talks, studies, articles, or anything that could help me to get proof of the reality I knew so well. I found a scientist names Paul K. Piff who does a lot of research on the association between empathy and privilege. Throughout his career as a sociologist at University of California Irvine, he has found that, “as a person’s levels of wealth increase, their feelings of compassion and empathy go down, and their feelings of entitlement, of deservingness, and their ideology of self-interest increases.” So as a person climbs up in capitalism, they become less and less able to care about the needs of others. This also works in the reverse way. Capitalism can actually reward and work better for people who experience sociopathy. The whole system is based on self interest. It encourages independence and self reliance, one of the exact ideas that Piff found as a major quality that allow a person to forget about the needs of the greater community. He said, “Wealth and abundance give us a sense of freedom and independence from others. The less we have to rely on others, the less we may care about their feelings. This leads us towards being more self-focused.” This process of researching and reflecting were very helpful to me because it allowed me to gather more evidence on a subject I feel a large emotional connection to. However, something I could have done better was to look at resources that did not come from a perspective I was necessarily looking for so that I could broaden my perspective on the complexity of the issue.
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Since I started junior year, I have felt like Harry Potter’s uncle. Not because I am fat and British, but because no matter what I do, I am always getting mail from schools! I can’t stop it, colleges are coming at me from every direction at every hour of the day. None of the emails I get really interest me. They all claim to be some liberal heaven with cutting edge everything and all of the diversity in the world. I’m not sure where I’d like to go to college. I want somewhere that allows me to feel like I am on a bustling, lively campus but also has beliefs in equitable education. I am not fond of the idea of sitting in a lecture hall with 500 students, even though I will probably need to be, so for now I’m looking into schools with a more “progressive” take on undergraduate learning.
My favorite schools so far have been UC Santa Cruz and Stanford. I love UCSC because I know I would be happy there. A lot of family lives in the area but I am a good distance from home, it’s on the beach but also in the forest, there is lots to do that doesn’t involve consumerism, and the school itself is beautiful. As for the education, they are split into colleges so it might not be as bad as, say, UCLA. It’s not very prestigious meaning the people there won’t be all from top SAT tutor, La Jolla type neighborhoods. It seems like an environment I would thrive in. However, if I were to get into Stanford, I would probably go there instead. I don’t like Palo Alto, my life would probably be much more study intensive, but the actual education would be much better. I really like that Stanford is a pioneer in teaching techniques like the 8 ways of thinking that they use instead of having general education classes. They find ways to make things interdisciplinary and then give each class some labels for which way they push a student to learn. By the time you graduate, you have to have taken one of each of these 8 ways. This means I would have more autonomy over what classes I take! I love having autonomy. It just worries me that I’d get too stressed out or be surrounded by people I can’t relate to. They do not have a very large Latino population, nor is the school inexpensive. I’d have to take lots of weekend trips back down to Santa Cruz! We watched a ted talk that connected the concepts of neuroplasticity and growth mindset. In my head, I had made connections between the two from the start, but the data on the subject was very interesting. The ted talk focused on using the word “yet” in classrooms. So instead of students failing, teachers would just say that they haven’t mastered a subject yet. This connects to neuroplasticity because instead of people giving up because they failed, they are rewarded for effort, strategy, and progress, all things that help to increase myelination of neural connections. By encouraging practice, teachers push the brain to perform the functions that actually promote learning.
This reminded me a lot of math class. In the HTHCV math program, they have always said, “Failure is just a first attempt in learning.” In freshman year, they actually eliminated grades because they believed that they were counterproductive. For students who are naturally, “intelligent”, and get straight As, they aren’t pushed to challenge themselves because they are already getting good grades. For students who struggle more with content, they aren’t pushed to get any better because they are discouraged by the Cs, Ds, or Fs on their report cards. I really liked the thinking behind this. Even though grades were eventually brought back they have always kept up the positive reinforcement and made sure that we focus on improving ourselves. This is why math is one of my favorite classes, because even when the content gets difficult, I know I will always have the support to build on those neural connections in my brain. After a long day of workshopping our social justice topics and launching the project, we got the chance to meet a panel of activists from all different fields. They introduced themselves and immediately I fell in love with Ms. Patricia. She represented, for the most part, exactly the kind of person I hope to grow up to be. She was intelligent, powerful, eloquent, and kick ass. She shared about her youth in South East San Diego and how she was exposed to many things that people in higher income neighborhoods never experience. This got her politically motivated and pushed her to become the executive director of the Sherman Heights community center. At the center, she devotes time to her community by teaching art and Chicano studies. As someone who is very passionate about the Ethnic Studies movement, it makes me so happy to hear that empowering leaders are sharing their knowledge with their community and helping people to uncover the strength of their roots. However, there was more to what made me love her. When the teachers asked what the activists do to take care of themselves, Ms. Patricia said that she plans days where all she does is sit on the couch from morning until night. She told us about how in order to continue the work without burning out, we need to heal ourselves. Otherwise, our problems will eventually catch up to us and we will end up unable to continue serving others. I consider myself an activist and I know that I have a very hard time with taking care of myself. Hearing this from her was very important to me because it showed me that even kick ass people take time to do the things that make them happy.
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What is this?Hi everyone! This is my junior year blog. Here you will find weekly reflections up until the completion of my junior internship. I hope you enjoy this inside look on my learning! Archives
June 2018
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