VIEWPOINT ESSAY ClassWeb Magazine | Syllabus | HW Assignments | UCLA AAS 116 | Resources Peace
It Together: Putting Our Ideas about Peace and Justice into Action
WAKE UP! Now how many times do you have to regret waking up at the end of a class you shouldn’t have even gone to? What would your mother say if she saw your notebook covered with unintelligible scrawls? Shame on you! Why don’t you take a little action in your class? Or rather why doesn’t the class put a little action in you? Every year we come head to head with a rushed quarter system and usually a class where we sit in lecture, act as personal recorders to the professor, and in the end choose to really listen only when we have found it’s meaning and relevance in our lives. Classes that require mandatory office hours, fieldwork, or experiments positively reinforce the information, but even still your own ideas are not essentially put to use. Your creativity is stunted to what you feel the professor wants, and where’s the fun in that? An ideal class would have all students leave recognizing its usefulness in their own lives, where ideas are manifested into action. The Social Movements class presented by the Asian American Studies department does just this. Don’t let the class title get you the wrong way — it’s not just made for student activists or Asian Americans, but for students who are curious about social issues outside UCLA and may not know where to begin. This class provides an academic atmosphere where you can look at current events critically while at the same time engage in dialogue with students from diverse standpoints. The class is under the guidance of Glenn Omatsu, who gave up the reins to the students, resulting in a free flow of ideas, pieced together in order to form an end-of-the-quarter event planned by the students themselves. The event, scheduled for March 10 in the Northwest Auditorium at the dorms, is the culmination of eight intense weeks of class discussions, training workshops, speakers, art-integrated instruction, and campus and community outreach. This event entails the very concept of putting ideas to action. Organizations are great and may serve the same purpose. Yet they are extra-curricular, meaning you have to divide your time between your studies and your social concerns. This particular class combines both the desire to commit to academics and acting on one’s curiosity of the world outside. I imagine that in an organization there are issues with fitting in, bureaucracies within, and other social constraints. This class provides an opportunity to converse with other students outside your usual circle of friends in a non-intimidating and creative way for not only intellectual and personal growth, but for school credit as well. And because The Event is presented by a class, it is more approachable and appears to be less biased than say if it was hosted by a Republican or Democratic organization. A student does not have to advocate one group or another in order to attend this event. Nevertheless, whichever campus outlet you choose, community concern continues even after college. Therefore, it is important to gain a sense of empowerment now in order to serve as an active citizen in the community in the future. For those who haven’t really felt the relevance and effect of public policy in their lives, the impending war and the growing threat of terrorism have created an urgency never sensed before. Now as war is nearing, we may all feel the direct stress and have certain questions about what may be going on in the war, how it’s going to affect us, or possibly what we can do about it. There should be a place where you can voice your thoughts and ask questions on issues that are usually not discussed in the classrooms through engaging ways. The Asian American Social Movements class is almost over but fortunately has been extended. The Event, taking place Monday, March 10, is going to feature education through art, entertainment including spoken word, performance skits, live bands, “We are the World” open mike karaoke, and a number of stations where you can play games, create a block of chalk art, or make a cool T-shirt — all oriented towards sparking dialogue, ideas and questions about the war. The event is called “Peace It Together” meaning that it requires you the student to create the image yourself without being lectured or forced into an opinion. Come to the event at the dorms and exercise your brain, your inquisitive skills, and explode your creative capsule. And don’t ever be caught sleeping again.
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