The experience of Course( Joe Zhou)

I'm a bit late to write this...But what can I do? I have been in China for 10 days!

Anyways, I think I'm lucky in John's class since I'm indoor person. I heard the other Think Tank went kind of far outside or made some kind of protest. I am just neither very radical nor outgoing. I enjoy to stay inside and watch doctumentary movies. I finished watching every movie in class. It is the most comfortable way of education for me.

I didn't really touch many new ideas in the course like I told John, sicne I knew them quite ahead. But I made some leap on the further development of ideas. And the course makes me indeed more aware of think deeper about an issue. It is not only about noticing, but finding out origin and future possibilities. Knowing is easy deal. Solving is hard.

I used to be a rigid Greenie, now I am able to be more tolerant. The Short History of Progress is sort of a balancing with David Attenbough's programs, which put the most focus on wild and nature. I get more parts of how human do things instead of how beautiful the nature is. The nature is beautiful; but human beings do have patterns.

It is interesting that I often fall into a situation where girls outnumber boys. In Toronto Humane Society, while I was a volenteer of kitten feeders, I was the only male at my shift for 3 month. Well,girls are very actively speaking! Often passionate as well. In high school it is kind of different. I'm glad that people want to speak.

Anyway, I had a quite fine experience. Hope others can be positive as well.

We liberals just too often go into depressed ends. My cousin in China often comments on the western aesthetic as "werid, frustrating, dark, gloomy, and not pleasant". It seems we have thrown away most of the comfortable spirits!

And in the end...

I taught two sections of Think Tank: Awareness in the fall term of 2008. It was a great experience for me, brought me into contact with some very interesting young people, and reminded me how much I enjoy learning as well as teaching.

In the last few weeks, students prepared presentations dealing with a problem (and its purported solution) that they find interesting. The only limitation was that it had to be a problem that calls for a collective (social, citizenship) response. They also had to consider how they, personally, could make a difference. Can you dig it?

Architectural preservation
Art in children's lives
Caring for people with disabilities
Corruption in Cdn politics
Depression
Food additives
Garbage and recycling in a retail store
Globalization
Handgun violence in Toronto
Human trafficking
Lack of recycling in apt buildings
Nicaragua's plight
Non-violent struggle
Pollution in outer space
Polygamy in muslim and western countries
Problems with foreign aid
Prostitution
Racial discrimination
Religious extremism
Street kids
Transporation fuels and climate change
Wind energy
Women's reproductive rights

Thanks all, it was a real pleasure!