Week 2

Caitlyn Minas
A03
April 7, 2017

I can see why students confiding in their professors during office hours would not contribute to the professor's academic credibility. However, I am shocked that the university values prestige and does not view such mentorship as a service; rather, this service is discredited, not included on a resume, and not considered when teachers are being evaluated.  If the goal of the instructor is to broaden and enrich the student's education, doesn't that guidance deserve cognition for, well, teaching?  One would like to believe professors who aim to positively impact students' lives within or outside of an academic institution would be held to the same, if not higher, esteem as professors who contribute award-winning publications yet choose to isolate themselves from their students.  I guess this is why  go through education seeking answers we may never find.  If our journey in the world of education truly involves helping others, then the professors who will make the most positive impact society will not be the ones with the most "merit," but the ones who aim to connect on a personal level, resulting in better equipped students preparing for their future.

While reading Kaozong's thesis about her miseducation about Hmong culture misunderstandings in the U.S., one aspect stood out to me:  in a culture where boys are generally given more privilege than girls and men do not have to work as hard to succeed as women do, we grow up learning education is crucial for building the path that will help us equally succeed as individuals.  It is just as heartbreaking to read about Hmong-American children trusting education will serve to benefit them in the long run when the system just hurts them more.  They eventually realize that education is more of a survival necessity instead of the romanticized view that you can have and earn anything you want in life as long as you get your degree.  I use "survival" loosely because we as students have become more competitive for resources and attention, in which access increasingly deceases for marginalized communities because the system is (accidentally?) set up to further disadvantage certain minority groups regardless of gender.  This piece demonstrated the disappointing effects of American education within a certain minority group and strengthened my understanding that the problem lies within the system, not the group's culture.

The Economist (2013, Oct 12).  Knowledge for Earnings' Sake.  Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/finance-
          and-economics/21587784-good-teachers-have-surprisingly-big-impact-their-pupils-future.

Q:  How can we, as students, take initiative to fix our miseducation about many underrepresented groups in Eurocentric history?