Fall 2010 Critical Thinking First Field Notes

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Post Field Observations Here:

Mark Alfino

Notes here

Hania Burrows

Yesterday I was in a situation in which I felt I was in a reflective context. Originally I wasn't going to be going home for Thanksgiving break, but I decided that I really wanted to. I started thinking about the best and cheapest way to get home. Flying would be a great option because it would only be about a 30 minute flight to Portland, but ticket prices were expensive. After thinking about it, I realized there was a simple solution. My grandparents live in Spokane, so if they came to Portland for the holiday I could just ride down with them, and the get a ride back up to Spokane as well.

Casey Birdsell

Reflective Context Number One: New Laundry Schedule

This past week I became aware of a situation that could be considered a reflective context in my new dorm regarding a proposed laundry schedule from our RAs. After not even a week on campus the two building RAs felt a laundry plan needed to be implemented. The claim the RAs made was that there were physical fights over the two washing machines in our dorm last year. This claim did indeed turn out to be true as confirmed by a friend of my roommate who resided in the dorm for the 2010-2011 school years. About ten residents on my floor later involved themselves in a conversation about this issue because they felt the action was unfair to new freshmen residents and that the decision should have been made by the hall occupants and not just the RAs. Other residents felt that the issue should not be discussed too much until we learned of the RAs concrete plan for the laundry schedule to be implemented. Each of the individuals, regardless of their views, entered conversation with a tone of betrayal and uncertainty as nobody truly knew what was going to happen and whether the laundry schedule would mess with their own personal agendas. I began feeling as if my independence had been stripped away; we are students in college now and should be able to monitor our own laundry needs and control our emotions regarding such a simple task that everyone needed to get done. As I thought further I really felt as if our RAs should have previously discussed matters similar to this at our first hall meeting to give us all a heads up for what could potentially need to happen if conflict were to occur. I vented to my hall mates, many of whom had similar views as me, and found that there was only one realistic solution of which could have two outcomes. My solution, found with the help of my friends, was to wait until the schedule was presented to us where I would (1) express my concern that this issue should have been discussed by the hall before the schedule was enforced by the RAs if it was presented to the group unfairly, or (2) find that the schedule was satisfactory and plan to abide by it as long as it appeared in the residents best interests.

Reflective Context Number Two: Pig Out in the Park Plans

Another situation of reflective context occurred where our neighbor, Kevin, came in saying, “We should go to Pig Out in the Park tomorrow instead of today, because our friends are out doing other things and we had planned on going with them and it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to go today.” His rationale was correct and supported his conclusion and premise; however it launched my roommate and me into a world of thought about how we should spend our Saturday. My roommate decided she wanted to go as planned while providing the claim that “If I do not go today as planned, my study schedule for tomorrow will be thrown off.” This was a reasonable claim in which I supported with the rationale of “I agree, Pig Out in the Park will take away a minimum of two hours of my time tomorrow that I had planned to spend at Foley.” In both of our claims we were thinking about the object of our thought “studying” and examining the importance we should give it in our thoughts. Were we thinking about studying too much? Was it really as important as we were letting off? Are my first week jitters causing me to think differently about this issue? Am I allowing my thoughts on studying to be altered by those around me? While I can’t completely speak for my roommate these were the thoughts flying through my head as I thought this issue through while “thinking in stereo.”

Reflective Context Number Three: Old Spaghetti Factory

My third and final reflective context happened this weekend when I needed to explain to another student from a different region of the country why I really enjoyed the restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory. My claim was that I enjoyed the restaurant because it was inexpensive and catered to my dietary needs seeing that I have a food allergy. I supported that claim with the rationale that I usually got a meal for ten dollars, which included a salad, entrée, and dessert, and that the OSF had more than ten gluten free pasta options that allowed me to have just as much selection as the other individuals I went to dinner with on most occasions. Therefore, the individual I explained my reasoning with could then dine at the Old Spaghetti Factory and evaluate my claim as true or false, although, their view could be slightly different with their socio-economic perception of inexpensive and their idea of selection if they did not share the same dietary restrictions as me.