Open Forum: Week 1

I thought that the first discussion went very well. I had no clue as to what kind of information we would be dealing with, but it wasn't anything that went completely over my head. It seemed as though the conversation started to take a more political tone, democrats versus republicans, as we covered more of the topic. Nobody explicitly said 'I am (insert political party) and my party's opinion is my opinion and our opinion is absolute!' It was nowhere near that extreme. However, I did think that there were undertones of political persuasion intertwined with the topic. This is why I totally agreed with what Amanda said at the end of class. We are dealing with another country, and the politics are not the same as they are here in America. I think that in our future discussions we should try to argue using French logic rather than American logic. Besides that it was all very interesting!

Freshman Thesis

In my college orientation class, my leader asked us to blog about what we would do for a freshman thesis if we actually had to do a freshman thesis. So, I've been thinking about this, and I've decided that I would center my thesis on freshman traveling. College students in general do quite a bit of traveling, but freshman might be the most interesting to study. Freshman can be somewhat scattered as they become acclimated into their college surroundings. I think that it would be interesting to see where they go, when, and why. However, in order to monitor college students, a major number of details would have to be taken into account. The number of students in the study would have to be confined to a strict sample. They would have to be compliant with the study as well; there are many different factors that need to be dealt with. I do think that this is a topic that would be interesting to look at in a freshman thesis. I don't think that it would be something I would immediately consider for my senior thesis, but it is interesting all the same.

Honors forum topic

In Honors Forum, we are starting to discuss social stratification, immigration, and alienation in France. I personally have no idea what things are like in France, but I have heard that there are divisions even within the political parities. If this is true, then it is evident that changes are necessary to ensure peace for the future. I believe that the French need to monitor their immigration, but not to the point of excluding everyone from their country. The people of France seem to have a severe generation gap. The French guy in our class said that many of the riots were primarily composed of younger people. France therefore needs to find a way to build a bridge between these generations. Hopefully, these issues will be brought into a better light throughout the discussions. So far, I’m not much of an expert on the topic, but I'm ready to learn more.