Secret Agent Steve.

Hey there,

 

I’m Steven Bourque. “Bourque” is spelled weird but its easy enough to pronounce; /bərk/ or /burk/ if you’re into the phonetic alphabet. I am a senior and I study German and Linguistics. I want to start out by telling you a “small” amount about my time coming into college as a freshman and hopefully it will explain why I am thrilled to be in this class.

I came into freshman year declared as a criminal justice major. Why? To become a secret agent in the CIA and go on covert missions in foreign lands. I like to tell myself that was the idea but it might just have been something to tell my father instead of telling him I had no fricking idea what I wanted to be when I grow up. I just had no clue and, to be honest, it is still something that I am figuring out as a senior.

So I took my undergraduate classes and I found myself in the ENGL 130 class with Tom Fox. This class with Tom Fox leading it was by far one of the most important class that I have taken at Chico State. At first I treated it like any other English class. I went through the motions of just completing the work of a lower division class and I didn’t get a lot out of it. Tom Fox and my tutors kept asking me what topic I am interested in and what I would want to write about. At that point in my life I didn’t know what my interests were besides being a freshman. Much like declaring a major that I was passionate about, I was at a lost. So I decided to do research and find out how many others felt the same way I did. I wanted to know if it was normal for me to be confused about what I wanted to become. I conducted a survey of over 300 students. Mostly middle school students and a few college students as well. I found that over over 70% of the students I interviewed had no idea what they wanted to be when they grow up and through my research I also found that over 60% of college students change their majors by their junior year.

It was bitter sweet for me. At first I was relieved that others felt the same way. Then I became confused. How could all 18 year old students be expected to declare a subject or choose a career path that they wanted explore for the rest of their life? I think a lot of freshman are confused or stressed about this question as well. This is why I love the ENGL 130 class and why I am excited to work with freshman on a new level. Another reason I am excited is to explore my own path. ENGL 431 will give me the opportunity to see what teaching English is like. Through this class I hope to see what kinds of paths lie ahead whether its Linguistics, Student Affairs, English.. or  maybe I’m still becoming a secret agent..

 

As for the reading:

I found that the Introduction to a “social theory of learning” was a much easier read than the Foreword by William F. Hanks. I understand the overall theory of situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation but I would like to pick apart something in the Foreword that I didn’t understand at first.

Hanks has a section on page 17 that talks about understanding.

“The activity of understanding…comes down to recognizing and implementing instances of structure.”

“Understanding is seen to arise out of the mental operations of a subject on objective structures.”

 

Foreword by William F. Hanks page 17

I had to read this page twice to fully understand what he was getting but I understand now why he brings this up. He contrasts the above views of understanding with Lave and Wenger’s view that showing one’s understanding is not by recognizing structure but instead by performing and participating in more roles. I believe in this section Hanks is writing about different extremes on a spectrum of what understanding truly is. I think I will have to read over this page a couple more times to fully grasp his ideas so if any one has thoughts please let me know.

– Steven B.