Reflection Log 4 - Multicultural Education

After Dr. Webb-Hasan's speech, I am very excited to write my autoethnography. I know that I want to take on the cheating problem at my school. The top students of my class and at least the one above ours are infamous for their cheating, as well as many students in the top ten percent. At such an academically competitive school, such behavior cannot be permitted, as it is only detrimental for those students and the student body as a whole. Those students do not become prepared for college or receive a valuable education, and many students in the class feel put down or pressured to cheat with an already stressful school workload. The main problem is that students feel like cheating is necessary to get into the top ten percent, and students who are academically honest feel slighted. This has created a rift and the highest source of tensions for students at my school.

I want to use what I have learned in the past to make large quilts or chains of papers that each student can decorate saying something like "My education is more than a GPA or class rank" on it. I'm still figuring out exactly what I want it to say, as I think there's probably something that can get my message across better. I hope that in doing a project like this, students will realize that there are other methods to cope with stress, and that LASA needs a supportive environment that values education and doesn't pressure students to "achieve" by cheating.

I am really excited to work on this, and to use what I have learned both in the Governor's School and as a person to make a greater change in my school.

I am also excited to work on my group's play, which focuses on classism and discrimination. Our script is coming along well, and we are going to work on and finish it tomorrow. I think we're sending a strong message, hopefully without being too cheesy. Since we're performing on Wednesday, we are going to finalize our play and music selections by Sunday. I really like the tableau and music aspects to the play as well, as I think they allow for more areas for creativity and different means to work against classism and discrimination.