Goal 13 – Conflict in Virginia Places and Past [GNED 400] {Honors Course}
Conflict in Virginia Places and Past is an Honors course which helped me meet my General Education Goal 13. I have chosen to reflect upon a reflection I wrote when I was asked to pretend I was attending a town hall meeting in Richmond, VA to advocate for either the protection or removal of Confederate monuments on Monument Avenue.
Dr. John Miller and Dr. Larissa Fergeson co-taught my Conflict in Virginia Places and Past course during the Fall 2017 semester. I knew GNED 400 was my only opportunity to have another class with Dr. Miller, who taught the American Literature course I took during my very first semester of college. I had organized my entire four-year plan around having him as a professor again; and then I found out what the topic of the course would be. I seriously reconsidered taking the course under Dr. Miller and Dr. Fergeson because I knew that I had such a poor understanding of both current and past events in Virginia. I did not want to appear uneducated, uncultured, politically incorrect, rude, or simply another dumb young adult whose ignorance would make anyone over the age of thirty ask “What is this country coming to?”
But then I realized that those fears were exactly why I needed to take the course. I knew that Dr. Miller would help me if I needed it and if I was willing to put in the work, and I knew that I was willing to put in the work. I learned so much throughout the course, particularly about racial issues in Virginia and Virginia’s ties to the Civil Rights Movement. We spent hours and hours discussing public memory as well as how the experiences of individuals and what they remember and forget about these experiences all work together to shape people’s opinions about social and political issues today.
Below, you will find a copy of the paper I wrote when I was asked to pretend I was attending a town hall meeting in Richmond, VA to advocate for either the protection or removal of Confederate monuments on Monument Avenue. Leading up to my writing of this paper, my class actually went to visit Monument Avenue to analyze the monuments. We also read numerous sources supplied by our professors which related to the controversy surrounding Monument Avenue and were written from various points of view. Class discussions and even debates led me to be able to form my own opinion about an important issue in my state–an issue that I never truly understood or even cared about one way or the other before taking the time to learn about it. What’s great about this paper is that I was even able to take the position of a future educator and tie my educational beliefs into the formation of my opinion as well.
This paper is just one example of how taking this class made me decide that I want to be a better-informed citizen of my state. I now know how and where to look for the information I need to ensure that I remain, for years to come, an enlightened, active, participating member of society–a citizen leader–which is exactly what Longwood University sets out to make of its students.
