anamericanstudies: Overview

As the year comes to an end, and summer finds itself yet again at our feet, I must look back and reflect on the school year. I thought I would write this blog to discuss my experience with my Junior year American Studies class. I struggled during the beginning of the year to fully grasp the learning and teaching style my teachers presented to me. Never before had I been given so much freedom to do my own creative thinking and discovering. We no longer were "covering" material, but we were "discovering" it. But as time went on, and I became more comfortable with this learning style, I really felt I understood the premise of the class. And I appreciated it.

Memphis, Tricycle, Untitled

William Eggelston 

I never thought that this technique could aid my learning process to the degree to which it did. I can now look at the world through different lenses, and gather evidence through many types of sources. My ability to formulate my own opinion, with confidence and passion, is directly related to the evidence. Looking at the world in which you live, and the history of that world, can help you shape a better future. When we can look back and point out the flaws of our society, we can help better equip us with the knowledge to prevent these flaws in the future. In my opinion, history is not about numbers or dates, it is about learning from our previous mistakes, and using the lessons we learned to help make a better, fairer, more reliable world in the future.