Round Table Discussion

Well, it's time again for Rules of Engagement. Only this time it seems like it's going to go much more smoothly. I like the setup this time around with it being a much smaller class size. There are only 7 students and 2 teachers this time, but theres still a lot of personality and speaking ability. It's a bit overwhelming to me and I sometimes sit back and just listen because it is so interesting.

My favorite part about this upcoming semester is the Denmark experience. I think that it is the reason I was originally interested in this class. It gives us an opportunity to get out and really talk to the community. During the discussion we were talking about how you can facilitate a discussion in a community which is going to definitely have differing views. It reminded me of Denmark and the activities we were putting on. The topic of education came up and we were supposed to assign a level of importance for each subject in terms of fixing. A couple people thought that education was a definite must to help out because their school systems had close to a 50% dropout rate. A married couple was at the table and the wife adamantly said that this was not a concern and their education system was fine. This confused me because during our prep work i had heard nothing but bad things about the direction the education was going. Discussions went back and forth and finally the husband spoke up and asked his wife that if the education was so good, then why did they move their kids to an out of county school during there school years? I was later told by a man at our table that she is currently a teacher in the system, but when she had kids, they moved away to go to a better school. I couldn't understand what agenda she had that was preventing her from wanting help, especially when she admitted it wasn't good with the way she handled school and her kids. Anyways, I didn't get an answer, and probably won't, but I look forward to having more experiences like this in the future. I'm looking forward to more Denmark excursions, working with Westminster and our other Mayor's Institute towns, and being enlightened by our class and professors.