Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

Vol 4 No 3

We have just found ourselves at another Autumnal Equinox and for many, that means a slowing down and a time for reflection on the year.  It’s also a time when we begin to plan for the numerous days of celebration that we encounter between now and the close of the year.  The air is crisp and cool, the leaves are changing, and all of nature seems to be gearing up for the long winter ahead.

Students don’t always feel that slowing down though, because they are inundated with the work and growing responsibilities of the classes in which they are enrolled.  Like the animals who are busily gathering food to last them the winter, students are gathering all the knowledge they can find in an effort to acquire everything they need to move forward in their academic careers.

But still, it is a time to reflect.  Reflection is one of the cornerstones of the Honors Studies experience and we try to instill that sense of change and deep thinking in all our classes and events, regardless of discipline or instructor.  Three questions push Honors Studies students to contemplate the cycles of not just learning, but critical thinking, personal development, and growth.  Each answer to each question links each learning experience to every other learning experience, in a long chain of your development as a member of the great wide world of ours.

So what are the questions?  Some of you already know them and have worked with them in different contexts.  Some of you heard them in passing, but that is all.  Some of you do not know.  All of you can benefit from hearing them early and often, so that when your formal reflection begins, it will be born from a semester long contemplation of who you are as a learner and a person.

Where have you come from?

Where are you now?

Where are you going?

They are broad questions – designed to begin a formal meditation on the work you’re doing in the class that you are taking and the experiences you had at the events you attended.  From here, your instructor will shape and mold the assignment to frame it within the specific content and exploration that was part of a semester long journey into art, math, composition, sociology, or literature.  Each will help you to celebrate your successes, consider your challenges, and explore the content of the   You will, in those pages, truly become a life-long learner and a scholar of the field that you have experienced in your time with that instructor.

course in detail.

I know I speak for many – if not all – of the instructors, when I say that the reflective essay is one of our favorite aspects of the Honors courses we teach.  We really get to see behind the veil, so to speak, of the students with whom we have shared our time, passion, and expertise.  We get to celebrate with you, share our sympathies for your struggles, and even call you colleagues of a discipline that we ourselves love and are continually students in.

And these prompts are never really limited to the classes you take or the events you attend.  

Reflection is an ever-happening experience for those who wish to enhance their strengths, smooth out their flaws, and work ever to become better people.  The only way to truly do this is to think about where we have been, consider where we are, and contemplate where we might be going.

But, it’s hard.

It is not always an easy experience, if we are being honest.  Self-reflection requires a certain level of vulnerability and honesty with yourself that can be painful, disappointing, or frustrating.  Humans, in most cases, are much better at finding fault in themselves than they are at finding strengths.  I encounter this every semester when I invariably get a student who writes two pages about how they cannot write.  Self-critique is one of the most powerful acts we can do as free-thinking humans and, doing so in good faith and sincerity can make us better people, and, in turn, make this world a better place. 

As Confucius said, “Study the past if you would define the future.”

So, tell me… where have you come from?