I took the POLS 1100 -- U.S. Government and Politics class to fulfill my American Institutions credit toward my general education coursework.
I've taken Sociology and World Religions as well as this course during my education at SLCC. This class has enhanced my awareness of the world around me as it relates to politics, religion, and social structures. Due to these three classes specifically I'm better able to understand why people may act the way they act, why certain ideals are important to them, and why they may vote the way that they do. Religion, social structures and cultures, as well as where one is from all play into a person's world view and ideals. This class rounded out my learning by bringing a political aspect of America and its variety of people into play. In addition, this class paired with my Technical Writing (English 2100) course, really enhanced my written communication skills both in the workplace and online.
At SLCC each course has learning outcomes a student should be able to demonstrate upon the successful completion of any course. I believe that this course has helped me to become a more critical thinker, especially in regards to politics. I have better tools for researching and voting within the U.S. political system and can better understand different sides of candidates and issues. I believe I am better able to communicate through writing (this was an online course). All of my assignments for this course involved written submissions online. I had to ensure my writing was clear and concise in order to make it understandable for other students and the professor during discussions. And finally, this course has vastly improved my understanding of the American political system, how it works, and how to become more engaged. I feel that I'm better equipped to discuss various ideas and issues and am a more educated voter. (I felt I was educated before, and realized during this course, how uneducated I really was.) I have the skills to educate other people as well, and direct them to resources to further their understanding should they desire that information.
This course has helped me to understand how bills are passed at a federal level, how our constitution was formed and what the Bill of Rights and amendments mean to us at citizens of the U.S. This course also fell during the 2012 Presidential Election year. I have voted every presidential election since I registered to vote at 18 years old. I've tried every 4 years, to be a well informed voter; I feel that this year, I finally was successful at being an informed voter. My assumptions about my level of knowledge regarding our political system has vastly changed. I realize I knew nothing before, and there is so much to learn and understand, that although I know more, I have a lot more learning to do in this area. This class has increased my interest in politics, which I thought couldn't be increased, because I do find politics interesting. I've also found that a lot of my assumptions about how Congress works (passing bills based on inflow of money) seem to be correct as well. So although I've learned a lot, I can see that some of my views seem to also be informed and correct.
Now that I have completed all of my general education coursework at SLCC, I believe I am a more well rounded person with the ability to see and understand a lot of the world and people around me, and that I have the skills to research things I don't understand further, and communicate more effectively with people about whatever ideas we have.
