To my surprise, the students in my classroom seem to be extremely active within local politics, advocacy, and have chosen subjects for their research projects that examine controversies that our society is struggling to make sense of. I was very surprised by my students’ initiatives to be aware of their political surroundings, perhaps it is because of my experience with the culture of my home that led me to believe they wouldn’t be too interested. Because so many people in my hometown share similar political opinions, there is a sort of apathy amongst most young students because they either do not challenge their parents’ beliefs, or they think that they will be unaffected by the decisions of the current administration.

In my classroom, I have had students ask if they could spend the first five minutes of class helping their peers register to vote, they’ve discussed amongst themselves the strange protesters that preach religion or conservative views in Red Square, they share with me the ways they are enjoying the transition of leaving behind a right-leaning hometown to come and share in the open discourse that WWU fosters. Their projects are, on a very basic level, researching communication, literacy, and writings as it relates to voting, to independent thought, environmental awareness, and tolerance. As someone who is so used to fighting when it comes to engaging in discussions surrounding politics, it is a very nice change to talk with like-minded individuals and share the personal experiences we have accrued over the years of defending our beliefs.

There are a few students in my class who seem to not know anything about concerning politics, or about the filth that is our current administration, and at first I think the passion and knowledge of their peers made them feel uncomfortable because they were so unaware of what was going on around them. Now, they’ve acclimated and even started to ask for help from other students to understand current issues, how they can become more involved, etc. I think that English 101 is also a classroom where students should learn to formulate their own independent thoughts and develop critical thinking skills, and having the opportunity to engage in informed discourse with their classmates is really helping this goal along.