Rwanda

I learned so much from the group activity we did! Starting from searching the internet and databases for articles about our topic, to writing questions other groups might ask us in the debate. Rather than learning out of textbook or taking tests, I think this was a better approach to learning because it was more "hands on" and directly involved us in what took place during the Rwandan genocide. Occasionally doing activities like this is a good idea because it helps accommodate people with different styles of learning, such as hands on learning and we all had lots of fun in the process.

The debate put us in the position of the main people who led to the killing of thousands and thousands of innocent Hutus and Tutsi. I personally was the United States which was a challenging topic for a couple reasons. For one, with all the research we did I learned that the events that took place in Somalia, with 18 American soldiers being killed and dragged upon the streets of Somalia on live television embarrassed the US as a country greatly. This led to the removal of troops from Rwanda out of fear of being embarrassed again in another African country. The event made America and the United Nations very reluctant to involve themselves in the genocide. Therefore America removed troops from Rwanda and basically stepped back and did nothing. As a world power, this led to great controversy because people believed that since they had the resources to help they should have and ultimately could have prevented the genocide or at least stopped it from getting out of hand.

The activity itself was actually lots of fun. I think it brought a lot of shy people out of their shells and had a lot of people that don't usually involve themselves in discussion, talking and debating with each other. It was difficult to put myself in the mind set back to 1994 and what a world leader would do in a disaster such as this. I think this was the hardest part of the whole activity because most of the events that took place would not be tolerable these days and so defending them is very hard the way we've been raised. It taught me a lot though. Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is an extremely difficult thing to do but it is necessary to get along with people and solve group problems.

"The American Scholar"

Emerson's argument in "The American Scholar" about American society still holds true today.

One reason Emerson's argument still holds true today is people are getting more and more specfic with their jobs. Instead of doctors we have allergy, sports medicine, vascular doctors, and many more. We don't have teachers, we have Geometry teachers and Biology teachers. Emerson points out, "the mechanic a machine; the sailor a rope of the ship". By this he is saying that society is so broken up from a whole, people are no longer "thinkers". Instead of looking at the big picture people are so focused on whatever they specialize in they no longer can form oppinions of their own and just rely on what others say about anything outside of their personal field. For example, Ben Franklin. Probablly one of the smartest men to ever walk the earth, yet half of his talent is no longer recognized. Aside from being a scientist he was also a politician, inventor, statesmen, economist, printer, and musician. These days it would be extremely rare to find anyone this multi talented because once someone finds something they are good at, it is all they focus on and never think of trying something different.

Today, Emerson's ideas still hold true because our society depends so highly on the assembly line. Everyday countless amounts of people wake up, drive to work at Ford Motor Company, and place the same part on car after car as they did the day before. They never look outside of their own little world to think of something bigger. Like Emerson says, "the parrot of other men's thinking" refers to how after doing the same thing over and over you get to be just a mere thinker. Yours thoughts are repetitive and no longer your own.