This isn’t exactly what I was expecting. I ended my last post with a joyous “see you in Vietnam!” But here we are and we are definitely not in Vietnam. No, we are at Seycove Secondary and guess what? WE’RE LEARNING!!! Ok, it’s not just now we’re learning, we learn all the time. This was slightly because this is basic knowledge that we not only need for our Vietnam project and trip, but also life. Politics. Not just what they are but how people’s views can be defined and represented across time and the world

I come into this unit completely clueless and confused. I know Mr. Hughes hates to hear this, but I often say how much I dislike politics. I have never really understood why it is how it is, why everyone does nothing but argue about it and seem to dislike whatever is happening at the time. Honestly, this week of lectures and debates probably opened my eyes more than any unit I can think of in a while. Allow me to break down why exactly.

The very first thing that we did this week, before any lecture, talk or idea sharing we did something new. We took a quiz. Not to test our knowledge or to collect what we knew and judge us on this. It was to gauge what we knew coming in, so that the teachers could find what to teach. The answer was that we knew nothing and needed everything, especially me. I got a guessing 5/10 on the first quiz. But as the week went on I learned more and more, but how?

We spent about 2-4 days doing intense lectures on a few things. The first was note taking. I have taken a lot of notes before in a few classes. From not packages in Physics or Chemistry, to writing down essential points in Biology. This is the first time though that I’ve had a teacher break down note formats. I chose traditional note style and I did it on paper. Similar to how I take notes in Biology. I take those notes often and I am comfortable writing the quickly and clearly, as well as a format that accommodates study notes. As far as what I learned it’s pretty simple to break down. I learned
everything. Like I mentioned earlier I came into this project a blank slate. Not only had I never thought about or considered where I or others fall, but I didn’t know what anything event meant. Detailed on the attached images throughout this paragraph are my notes. We discussed everything from Libertarianism to Feminism. Not just summarizing these topics and giving examples or definitions but connecting them. To each other as well as the work around us. We kept on taking similar quizzes to the one we took the first day (that i got 50% on) and by the end of the week I got 100% on the final two iterations of the quiz. For me not only does this new knowledge of the big wigs of the world around me but it also lends assistance to our next project. We’ve already started talking more about Nationalism and how it can become extreme. (A topic that where we are traveling to and researching has a deep history).

Now, what about my experience? My understanding? My views? That’s what’s next. In order to wrangle all of this back to the students we took another quiz. This one wasn’t bout how economic decisions are made in pure Capitalism. This was about where we fall on the 2-planed police spectrum. Left and right but also up and down. We took this quiz on the Political Compass Website. Here’s where I landed.

In this quiz I was near the middle but did fall slightly left and down. What does that mean? Well closer to the bottom is the closer you are to Libertarian, meaning you value political freedom, freedom of choice, and individual judgement and understanding. Being left means that I support social equality and reject the idea of social class separation. I agree with both of those statements, and based off my reaction to hearing lectures in the past week, it makes sense.

Finally, we were to communicate our understanding. In this project that took one of two forms. Either a video representing one political ideology or a poster that showed the spectrum through our own eyes. I chose to show what this all looks like through the eyes of me.

I did this by using flags. For me the best way to memorize interpret or organize countries is by flag. It’s their defining image. So what I did was in order to show the spectrum of politics i used those flags to spell the word politics and the flags are also in categories along the political spectrum. (eg. Communist countries on left). For this I had to research which countries were prominent or notable spots on the political spectrum throughout history. I also really liked how this poster turned out because it also shows the bleeding of one section into another and how countries can identify or act as multiple. Below is my poster illustration the mosaic that is the political spectrum.