English Class Reflection

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The assignment of how to evaluate the English Department and my reflections on the program in how it has transformed me into the graduate student I have become is a very hard concept to put into words. My entire experience has been only 4 quarters, however, those quarters made an indelible imprint nonetheless. My father would say, “If you don’t have anything good to say about something then don’t say anything.” This assignment has eluded me for that reason and I discovered this is why I wanted to avoid it altogether. At first, I thought I had nothing really good to say about the program. But after much self-reflection, I can truly say that I have had some great experiences along with some the really disappointing ones. I will try to make…show more content…
The near and dear edict used by professors to lower a grade for reasons such as for attendance was absurd. Especially those same professors are the very ones that are most absent because of their own personal family/children issues. Case in point, a professor stated that they would mark a student a whole grade down because of their absence, yet this same professor was absent because of children being sick, or they themselves being sick. Understandably things happen in adult lives. Yet the same standard is not equitable for students, even though students have the same and other valid reasons for their absences grades suffered. I find this horrible and completely injustice. We are all adults and student have paid for these very professors salaries, yet professors hold the key to student’s future progress and self-esteem. My feelings are that if you achieve a grade of B in your final that would suggest that you have above average knowledge of the subject matter presented and a final grade should mirror. So that’s enough of the negative. I want to focus on the more positive aspects of the English Department. Overall, the Professors in this department have by and large helped me along my journey. Returning to school after so many years was a difficult task. Professors like Dr. Pan, Dr. Edlund, Dr. Houck, Dr. Krammer, and Dr. Liliane Fucaloro have made my experience at Cal Poly the most memorable. I…show more content…
Pan’s 450 class I enjoyed learning about new criticism. I had taken new criticism before and I had developed a complete distaste for the subject. We explored all different aspects of criticism and for the first time I was able to see other perspectives in the interpretation of literature. He went back to the basics much to the chagrin but necessary for other students. How to analyze a poem, a work of art, and a literary novel in our own voice. No preconceived notion that a particular way of thought was the right or wrong way of interpretation. By introducing Queer Theory, Race Theory, Marx Theory, Freud Theory, etc. I could see our class take ownership of their opinions and having their own ability to find a theory and analyze a text through the lens of that particular theory. This gave student’s arguments and opinions great strength. By taking childhood literature such as Dr. Seuss and show how an innocuous piece of a children’s rhyme can be so racially charged with subliminal messages was eye opening. Those innocent texts held so many hidden prejudices that I found amazing to uncover with a student group’s presentation. This concept of learning new knowledge I hold dearest to my love of academia. The funny thing about Dr. Pan’s class was all of the students were at first so behind in their knowledge of theory, but by the end of the term we all became particular experts in the discipline we chose to speak about. Even the most reluctant student,

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