As I don’t get to see the outcomes or the written work of students, this is a little bit of a difficult question to engage with. On the other hand, I have seen many students across several classes throughout my subbing experience so far, and it has been interesting to see what they all seem to be talking about in general and what they seem to be concerned with. This has varied somewhat, but, surprisingly, there have been some very specific recurring issues or questions that the students seem to be grappling with that I believe keys into their current worldviews. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the common worldview is entirely narcissistic, but I would say that I have noticed mostly rhetoric and concern revolving around the individual rather than around more global issues. To a certain extent, I feel like this narcissistic egoism is an inherent quality within humanity, however, I was expecting their concerns to be more wide-ranging than I have found. Of course, with that being said, there is the caveat that I cannot tell from my interspersed interactions with different people if they are not wanting to open up to me, to share in general, or, if I simply haven’t built the rapport necessary to get to their conceptions of the world.

Over my first couple of courses that I subbed in, I started the class off with the same activity. In my own undergraduate experience, I had a professor who started each class by having the students share one piece of positive news from the media, or, one piece of positive new about themselves. I always felt like this was a nice overture to the class, and it seemed like a great way to get engaged with the issues we’d explore in a slightly more positive manner. I decided to ask students to raise their hands if they were feeling negative or downtrodden given the current situation in the news today. To my surprise, very few people actually raised their hands. I went ahead with the icebreaker anyways, but it did raise some interesting questions. I am not sure if they were just closed off and ignorant of the current political and world climate, if they were too nervous to share with their peers, or, worst, if they just didn’t care in the first place. In none of my conversations with them, or, in discussions, did any substantive views on the world seem to arise.

However, I overheard and interacted with several students who were preoccupied with their future job prospects given certain degree choices. I have found in my own experience thus far, that the majority of the thinking of students exists in a transactional sense. I get the feeling that they believe they are here to buy an experience (the degree), and that that will ultimately lead to a successful life (whatever that means). I have to admit, that, obviously, I have these thoughts as well, however, I feel like with the students, the freshman particularly, that the focus of their worldview is a somewhat unmitigated, central, and narcissistic view. I expected to hear much more discourse surrounding politics, rights, and opinions, but I continually find a group motivated more by the social pressures they are navigating as new adults and the assumed job market that they will be facing when they leave the institution. I don’t want to assert whether or not this is good, or, of course, whether or not I really have the full picture (how can I with the subbing and fractured view I have had), but I am a little taken aback by the reversal of my preconceptions of what they would be like, especially, in regards to their worldviews. I hope that in winter (when I have my own full section) I will be able to get a more nuanced view of this as I get to stick with a class throughout the whole quarter and actually get to interact with some of their written work.