"In our
first two weeks, you have read two articles, seen several videos and been
engaged in several discussions related to the concept of academic leadership.
At this point, and in your own words, what does the concept mean to you? What
subjects or interests do you have a sophisticated, intellectual understanding
of that you may want to turn into a major academic project in this class? How
do people sometimes abuse academic knowledge to manipulate others? How would
you feel if someone used your work to manipulate others (as Jared Diamond
claims Mitt Romney has)? How can creating academically sophisticated,
intellectual leaders help prevent such people from taking advantage of others
the way they do? How can this create a stronger democratic society?"
After the couple of classes we
had of the new course named Academic Leadership, I have finally achieved into
understanding the purpose of the course. I believe this new class intends to
help the students into their academic development and to solve the new
challenges they are yet to find as now high school students. I still have some
doubts on what we are actually doing, but after reviewing Mr. Tolley´s article
on Student Advisory I have come to one thought: "training" (in
quotes). Academic Leadership, for me, is "training" for not only
academic subjects, but also the challenges and responsibilities that we,
students, will have to face as we mature. I really would like to study and maybe do a biography on the life of Martin Luther King J. into a major Academic Project, since I have a lot of respect for this man who changed the word with only words. Another reason to do a project on his life would be the fact that he is one of the wisest men from modern times, I really enjoy his speech of "I Have a Dream."
One important topic that Mr. Tolley brought
with another article was that people use academic knowledge to manipulate
others. First, I have to agree that Mitt Romney has some kind of mental illness
and, second, is that people do manipulate others with other´s knowledge, like
Mitt Romney. What he did was taken a tiny bit of the work of a wise and intelligent
man, Jared Diamond, and changes it to fit his own needs. If someone did that to
me I would be shocked and try to fix the mess this person caused, so I do not
get criticized. One way to stop this would be creating smart enough leaders to
in order think before act because some of the current ones like Mitt Romney, cannot
accomplish such easy task. As in result of having intellectual leaders, they
will know what is best to their people and try to create a better democratic
society.
