Discourse Community: Economics

           I am an Economic major at Roosevelt University with an Associate in Business.  I hated Economics and told myself; I would never take a course beyond Econ 101.  When I transfer from Harold Washington College, I told the academic advisor, I wanted to study Actuarial Science. As he looked at my college credits and my entrance exams scores, instead he referred Economics studies. My original incentive for getting into the program was I only had to do 30 credit hours to graduate. In spite of my previous feeling towards Economics, I tried it anyway.

            My first semester at Roosevelt I felt like a fish out of water, and I didn’t understand what the teacher was talking about.  There were words I have never heard or used like: IMF (International Monetary Fund), import substitution industrialization, and (my personal favor) quantitative easing. Okay, I thought, now what does this mean in plain everyday English for the people who don’t have a clue? One of my teachers told me, “You must practice the language of Economists.” In fact when he gave tests, he wanted students to answer questions in its terminology. To comprehend books, and chart/or graphs, you must interpret, and learning the discourse community language.  It will take about a year or more to have some type of vocabulary background. 

            The most important thing economic students must do is to attend class. This is our initial starting point to learning behaviors, practices, and procedures. I believe most economic students must have a little nerd in them because this curriculum can be boring. The reading is not always exciting or clear at first.  Students are forever reading, assessing consumer behaviors and assumptions.  Economics is little psychology, mixed with statistics, a dab of finance, and a hint of business. We are multifaceted; it is our mission to learn about spending habits from the individual, national, and international points of view.

            Economics is not based on pure ideologies, but there are plenty of theories. Its teachings are established on the great Economist: Milton Friedman (Chicago School of Economics), Karl Marx (Scio-political theory), John Maynard Keynes (advocated the use of fiscal and monetary measures), and Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations). Their arguments and practices are expounded upon semester after semester, until you know the Economist base on the theory.

            One of the common beliefs we share is economics is used in everyday life. Believe it or not we all have a little Economist inside. For example, opportunity cost is based on what do I have to give up to do an activity. You weight the cons and pros of choices presented before you. For me to earn a living, I must give up leisure time and sleep. Our attitude towards spending money is founded on economics, basically, why, and where do you spend money?  The study encourages me to think about life.

            The Economic staff and students make up a small percentage at Roosevelt; new students are always welcome to join the curriculum. I have been asked, “What is your major” and I reply,” It Economics.”  Most people react as, if I am studying grave digging or mortuary.  So, it is not hard to figure out who belongs in the community, they will let me know by their reactions. Two weeks ago, I asked a fellow student what was the home assignment he told me, “Extrapolating data.” I know, he could have simply said, “Run a regression”, or create a graph, and run a statically analysis. These terms are not common knowledge and are used by finance and economic students.

It is obvious in an educational environment the professor is the authority figure. All of my teacher have their PhD in Economics. This means besides getting the degree, they have authored books, papers, and studies. The most prestige Economists has won Nobel Prizes and has established more discourse theories. All in all, it takes a certain type of personality to study economics.  My professor told us a joke in class one day. He said, “A statistician was conducting an experiment. He place is left foot in a bucket of cold water and his right foot in a bucket of hot water. His friend came along, and asked how he was doing. The statistician relied, on average okay.” I couldn’t believe the class started laughing. OMG, we are nerds. 

           

           

           

Hello, Is It Me Your Looking For?

            There are items in this life that make good combinations like: butter and jelly, cereal and milk, ham and eggs, and the list could go on. But there is one mix I have a hard time putting together, how to find my voice within academic writing. In a couple of my college classes, I had to do research to write an academic paper. Unless, it is a subject you are very interested in or familiar with this is a daunting task.  

            I was assigned to do a research paper on trauma as it related to September 11, 2001, the attack on America. I had to describe the traumatization of American and how they felt after the assault. Now to do this, I had to research different types of trauma such as: natural disasters, and wars, especially, second generation children who parents were captured by Hitler.  I also had to read journals on the psychology of trauma to understand its effect on individuals, households, and nations. After reading for a while, my eyes begin to cross and the words appeared to repeat.

            I felt tired of reading and write about trauma and I started to feel depressed. There were words I had to look up in the dictionary; afterwards I still couldn’t understand the meaning. I felt lost and I believed it reflected in my paper. I was told academic writing is not meant for casual reading, but it is targeted for particular audiences (academics). It is for those who are in a specific field of study or trying to be in it.  So, as college students it is necessary for us to get familiar with difficult reading. In Nancy Sommers,”Between the Draft”, she states, “…………I am distant, imponderable, impersonal voice,---inaccessible, humorless ………I spoke in an inherit academic voice; it wasn’t mine.(6)” I remember reading one of my paragraph out loud on trauma in a class peer review session. I took time, and carefully choose specific words to construct the perfect sentences. I wanted to sound scholarly and authoritative.  But the teacher told me, I had gotten caught up in the words. She was right, I was caught up. It sounded good, but had no context or meaning.  I was a machine on automatic writing down what I thought an academic paper sounded like. 
            My question is does an academic article always have to read so dry?  After reading a few paragraphs, it reminds me of a Charlie Brown cartoon when the adults are talking to the children and it sounds like, “Wha, Wha, Wha, Wha, Wha…” huh? I want to ask, if there is an interpreter nearby.  Your own personal voice adds life to writing. It is not someone else speaking, it’s you.  I do have something to contribute to this subject along with the backing of the research. It is much easier to be you then to transform into someone else's writing.

I Have Mine, Do You Have Yours?

            My elementary and high school education was in the hands of the Chicago Public School system. When I was younger, it wasn’t seen as a bad thing to be in public school.  But I do remember this one incident, a student was unruly.  He kept on and on about some nonsense and the teacher’s response was, “It does not matter to me, if you learn or not. I have my degree you need to get yours.” Those words rang as loud as the dismissal bell, basically, should we end class on that note? We were only third graders and weren’t thinking about a college degree. I repeated the comment to another student, “Teacher’s don’t really care they have theirs degrees, I need to have my own”, I said.  I understood the teacher was frustrated by the student’s rude behavior, but he wasn’t the only student in her class.  If this message was unpleasant to my ears, what were the effects on the other twenty students?  Have teachers arrived and no longer had the responsibility of being taught?

Perhaps, there is only a hand full of teachers who actually made that comment.  But according to Paulo Freire, “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education” he states, “The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence”(244). The teacher’s remark was a prime example of her being the Subject (place of authority or control), and the students as objects (less significant). I believe Freire argues, under the banking concept teachers feel they are the only vital component to the students education. I believe teachers play a big part in education, but shouldn’t have a superiority complex over their students.

 I felt all of my grammar school classes and some college courses were like gas stations, fill her up please. I felt pumped full of information as Frieire states, “………. ‘Container’ into ‘receptacles’ to be ‘filled’ by teachers” (244).  As there are different types of containers, there are students, and not every student learns the same way. In some instances, I retained knowledge from subjects I was interest in. On the other hand, when some of my classes ended I couldn’t remember anything I was taught. I am a visual learner. If I can apply the subject to something relative, I can retain it better.  But should teachers take all the blame, or is there pressure coming from the educational system? The banking concept could be intertwined within the school system.

As students are pressured to learn, are teachers pressured to teach?  I do believe the majority of teachers love their jobs but is the educational system telling them how to conduct their classrooms. Do they have autonomy to apply what Freire call the ‘Problem-posing’ education? It is a shame, but I don’t remember the “teacher-student to student-teacher relationship”(249). Unfortunately, I felt I was always getting ready for the next big test. So, what I needed was not important because I had to past the IOWA test (a standardized state test that evaluated what level a student learned).

The teacher-student relationship is essential as the parent-child relationship. In America, most of a child’s life will be in a classroom, so this interaction is not a causal event. It is important that both parties learn and be taught by each other. To make the comment,” I have my degree, you need to get yours”, destroys relationships, and encourages separation. We are so concern about losing children to drugs. Have we lost the minds of those who are seating in the classrooms every day?