Thursday, November 17, 2011

Socio 10 [1st entry]

During the enlistment period, I realized that my Philosophy 1 class is in conflict with my Mathematics 100 schedule, which is 3-4pm. Since the Math class is apparently, more important, I had to scamper to the Philosophy department in the Faculty Center to cancel my enlisted class immediately. Right after, I sprinted to room 118 of the Math building to enlist my desired Math 100 class. Nervous, frightened, and excited at the same time, I waited for the result of the E-prerog; seeing my Math 17 instructor write on my Form 5a gave me a feeling of relief. Also, looking at my document, I realized that I now lack one GE-SSP; dying to get the enlistment process done, my friends and I ran to the FC to look for any available classes. Fortunate enough, Socio 10 [4-530pm] class has been opened, I took this opportunity to finally enlist an SSP and at the same time a Phil. Stud. class. 

Clueless of what the class will be about, I immediately left the MB and rode a TOKI Jeepney to be able to climb up the stairs to the third floor, and reach the 18th room of Palma Hall on time. When our mentor started talking, in my mind I kept on saying to myself - should I look for a different class? I found the people in the air-conditioned room very intimidating, that is why I had a difficult time thinking of what to answer to the quite simple question what is your nickname and what are you doing here. Luckily, I need not answer it with a fancy statement but rather an honest one and by the end of the period, I thought it is very interesting to be able to share ideas with people from different departments, and figured I'll stay in the class.

Never had I come across a democratic classroom; most classes I have been to, if not all, have had an authoritarian setting. Usually, students are not given a chance to state their proposals to reinforce the class policies, contents and the breakdown of grades. That may be the usual setting in classrooms but not in Sir Cardenas's classes. The class was divided into three groups and given fifteen minutes to deliberate on the changes we wanted to make. At 4:15pm of November 17, 2011, the students of Socio 10 THY started to throw their proposals to be written on the white board and be reviewed. It was a long process, all views on a certain suggestion were examined and evaluated. After about forty five minutes to an hour, the class together with Sir Cardenas agreed to take off the lower bound of the word count of journal entries; to adjust the breakdown of grades to the values that would most probably benefit most of the students; and decided to include arts and culture to the content of the course.

As a student, I am used to just accepting whatever there is to be done and be followed. To me, this process is very effective since it hears the sides of both parties, the teacher's and the students'.  The democratic setting of my sociology class appears to be fair to everyone. I am only hoping that this does not show any disrespect to our instructor for "sort of" questioning his syllabus. I only wish for all instructors to be like Sir Cardenas, understanding and fair. 

Looking forward to this class. I must conquer my fear of reciting in classes. Lastly, by the end of the semester, I must have been able to share with others, my insights and experiences and learn from their insights and experiences as well.

word count: 612

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