Blog 2 - How has our exploration of the concepts of "Community" and "Goodness" impacted your thinking? Identify two insights that you have gained about yourself as a result of our work together. What attitudes, beliefs, understandings do you need to develop further, to be a better member of the communities you participate in (including our classroom community)? Why? How might you improve in these areas (identify an improvement strategy)?
Since the beginning of this class, I have come to see how important and influential our communities are in our lives. However, not often do all of our communities go hand in hand with each other. Many times the different communities we are a part of contradict each other in some way when applying them to real life. In class, for example, we did an exercise where we, as individuals, had to chance to save 1 group in danger of being run over by a trolley, while simultaneously putting a different group in danger. At first, the exercise did not seem that hard. Many students in class picked a side, stuck to their side, and gave solid reasons as to why they would react in that way. However, once we received ore information on who made up these groups in danger, biases unreasonable thinking came to light. This made the class really think to themselves, "What is actually important". Again, we did another exercise where we asked ourselves, "What are the most important things we need to be happy or live a good life". Ultimately we had about 10 to 12 things on the board, but when ranking them, regardless of the communities we were each a part of, we seemed to agree on the same things.
After applying this thought process to my own life and experiences I have realized two things: Morals and values overpower titles, and although your community may influence your life, it does not make you, you. Regardless of what communities we are a part of, we always make decisions based on the morals we give the most value to.This is partially why it is important to respect all communities, and learn before judging. At the same time, to become a better member of your community, you should really consider what is important to you. This was you can asses and reevaluate your role within your community. If your are not the fastest runner, but have a great arm, you should probably be the quarterback of your team. Same concept applies to life. If you believe in one thing more than the other, put yourself in positions that will bring you the greatest purpose and contribution to your community.
