Historical Inquiry I
Of all the classes I’ve taken so far while at Longwood, this has proven to be one of my least favorites, with organic chemistry close for a tie. I think the main reason this class was so low on my list is because of the large amount of work assigned, the very strict grading and the general confusion of what was actually required to be known for this class. Overall, this class consisted of 8-16 page articles for each homework assignment and then later on over 50 pages of reading for multiple books. While I don’t mind reading, it becomes a lot tougher when the subjects are no where near your areas of comfort. This class was centered around the history of atheism; when it was first seen, the literature written about it and why it is so important. The topic actually really intrigued me, as I tend to not describe myself as a religious person; so I found myself both agreeing and wanting to learn more about what I was reading. However, I felt that a lot of the time I was left confused by the scattered notes I was required to take and like I was struggling to understand the main points. I found that most days I wasn’t looking forward to this class and that the homework took ages to do because of the large amount of reading and annotating involved. There were also 4 pages essays assigned each week with the addition of a short essay to accompany an article given that week. While I didn’t necessarily enjoy the class as a whole, I did like the professor and his sense of humor. I also really enjoyed some of the points taught to us about atheism and why it makes sense to some people. This class did teach me that despite not enjoying something, I still need to give it my best effort or I’ll end up doing even worse. It wasn’t a fun class or one that aided to my biology major, but I’m still glad I got to learn about a topic that I otherwise would know very little on.
This was my final exam for the class and was centered around the concept of individualism and how it was first started. It was definitely a difficult paper to write and involved lots of outside sources!