Disclaimer: Just a Dose of Daily Cheese(It’s about to get cheesy)

Every new registration period, students fish for a class that pushes one to think, to question and to change perspectives that have been held for too long. When I registered for Fall classes in the Spring, I had an entirely different outlook on what I had wanted out of my future education. It was prior to my first study abroad trip and still in the deep throes of planning my second study abroad cruise I wanted to take around the world. Looking back, I have no idea what compelled me to register for the International 399 Education and Development class, as it was only loosely connected to what I had wanted to do, but today, I could not be happier that I did. The moments that this class created for myself was an experience unlike any other. Twenty classes, forty hours and sixteen minds created fruitful discussions, viewpoints and research that I have not yet experienced in any other classroom setting.

1.The documentary Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden, by Director Carol Black, introduced me to my first moment of finding education in a class about education. It was an inception of my schooling experience, everything I thought I had known had only been a presumption. I watched along with my classmates in a critical critiquing style and listened objectively as my American mindset of “helping” the world was stripped from myself and displayed before me, a crucifixion of everything I’d hoped to do in the world. This moment was one of relief and set me up to have an open mind for the rest of the term, constantly searching for any benefits and necessities of International Development and globalized ideas.

2.The next moment was subtler, it may not have even been distinguishable as a single moment in time but more a final moment of realization. Midway through the course, I realized that we had learned about different reasons for development, different theories that pushed that development and how that tied into education. We had class on the floor, ridding ourselves of the traditional chair, table, central teacher, westernized mentality and opened discourse for a new method of listening, discussing and learning. Never had this happened in a class of mine before. We had been taking pictures for an accompanying photo project during this time. I was asked “What is education?” and all of my answers kept changing, each day, with each class. When I drank tea provided to me as I sat on Indian blankets, I had my second moment where I actively questioned, what is education? My perspective was changing.

3. This class required a large research project and presentation, chosen by your own personal interest, guaranteeing hours of interesting researching and a final presentation that could be full of personal interest and even passion. I chose to study education in a country I would soon study abroad in, while others chose to focus on areas they had once visited or dreamed they will visit soon. Watching my peers, I saw international problems in an educated light, with occasional first hand experience. My peers were actively teaching me, and with the bonds we had been creating throughout the year, my interest in their words was at an outstandingly high level.

4. The final moment of key success in this class, that reassured me that I had not wasted four credits, was my final presentation and policy memo write-up. I had never been asked to create something from such extensive research and then given the time to present it in a manner that ensured that my words mattered. They were not skimmed over by a professor with 300 other papers, they were heard by fifteen or so other sets of ears.

And then, we had our final brunch on our final day. We shared our photographs and our ranging epiphanies. I’m left to study for a final that is personalized to my interests and am reviewing the extensive readings that expanded my views and interests. It’s been fabulous, and I can only hope that every student with any intrigue in the world will one day also stumble upon this class.

“It is the child who makes the man, and no man exists who was not made by the child he once was.”—Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori Education System.