Stolen Childhoods Class Reflection

Three weeks have flown by and it is already the last day of class for session 1. We concluded class by giving our group presentations on global childhood issues. The four group presentations were on poverty, child labor, child soldiers, and human trafficking. Although these four issues produce a variety of different experiences, they have similar implications on children's lives. There are many ways to intervene and improve the current conditions of children's lives. After the class presentations I was inspired to do more research and learn more about these various topics. This was a good way to end the class, with inspiration to learn more. People are responsible for taking charge of their own learning, myself included. 

After class we headed to The Living Room to grab lunch and complete our self-evaluations for the course. I found this a good time to reflect on the class as a whole. Everyday I came to class well prepared with all the reading completed with highlighting or notes in preparation for class discussion. I was active and observant during the fieldwork and was interested in the findings of other group's research for the class book and global children’s issues projects. Three weeks is a very short time to cover all the material I would have liked to, but I was very engaged in the topics we were able to cover. I wasn’t particularly pleased with the level or work I put into the two papers, but I don’t think I had enough time to submit the quality of work I usually do.

I am generally shy at first and like to get a feel for the class dynamic before speaking up. As soon as I started to speak up more and engage in class discussions, the class was coming to a close. Even though I wasn’t always talking, I was very engaged in the discussion and listened to what others had to say.

When completing the class book, my group really dove in feet first. We grabbed a topic and began researching while communicating what we had found or what we were working on in order to avoid overlap. This was the same for the global children’s issue presentation. When given the opportunity to work on these projects, I was consistently researching, working on formatting, or completing whatever task was necessary for the day. Looking at the projects as a whole, my group worked well together and submitted a professional presentation.

I had not expected to learn as much about how to advocate on behalf of children, and I have learned a great deal from this class in just three short weeks.