Political Science

This is more for me. When I was taking the mid-term for my political science, there was a part that required us to write an essay about one of several topics. The one I considered but didn't write about is the one I'm going to address now. The question: What have you learned since you took this class? How has what you have learned changed or supported the views you had before this class?

Alright, first off I have to say what I thought the class was going to be like. I thought comparative Political Science would involve comparing governments, laws, ethics, stuff like that. The kind of social science classes I was use to were pretty much the same in content and execution. The class I'm taking now is unlike any social science class I've taken before- which is probably why I was lost the first week. We have learned about ethnic cleavages, regime change, different institutions, and modernization. Most of these things I had never even heard of or considered. I actually asked my fifteen year old sister what she thought an institution was and the only thing she could come up with was a mental institution, which I thought was pretty funny. Most of my past knowledge of history is pretty limited though, so I often find myself in uncharted waters. It seems like every week I learn something new and interesting from this class. Mostly I have come to realize how good we have it in our country. I hear about the governmental set ups in other countries where there are little or no human rights and everyone fends for themselves. There are constant wars, conflicts, and people often work for nothing. As a teenager, I often hear songs and see people that criticize our government. They say that our government is screwing us and not doing it's part to help and support this nation. While all of this maybe true to some level, we are still better off than most of the countries in this planet. We should appreciate the fact that we have the ability to affect change in our nation and benefit to such a great extent. At least we have the right to openly criticize it. Well anyway, I just wanted to get this out there. It was bugging me today. I don't even remeber the prompt I did chose for the essay. Part of me wishes I had written this one.

~Jessica