Class Review - - Glass Half Full Perspective; Second Semester is Halfway Started!

Overall, I think this first half of the semester has been going well. I have enjoyed the focus on rhetoric and analysis, the workload, and the tests. I like blogging and reading other blogs and I like the small class atmosphere. I feel like we have covered some very important topics and I know logos, ethos, pathos like the back of my hand.

However, I don’t enjoy when our topic of choice spirals into a political argument, splitting our class. When we discussed gender, I felt like our in-class discussions and videos did not pertain to English much at all as those were directly related to context rather than language and style. I also don’t enjoy when I feel uncomfortable in class adding to the conversation or even just listening in to the conversation. I don’t like when the class becomes so hateful toward each other that I feel as though I would be happier sitting outside in the hallway, although I do appreciate the fact that no one brings feelings from the day before into the next morning of class.

I think we as a class could use more work on rhetoric vocabulary and how to use the terms because, memorization is great and all but without knowledge of application, it’s no use. I can barely even remember the words we were quizzed on so long ago let alone actually be able to use and apply them to a rhetoric analysis.

And personally, I think I need help with imaginative writing. I struggle with staying on topic and continuing with my original plot and spur-of-the-moment editorial decisions that wreck my whole story. I struggle with starting and finishing a made up story. I like written structure; rhetoric analyses appeal to me because everything I need to write about is right in front of me. I can’t effectively develop a personality of a character, I can only describe physical features and environmental descriptions. I struggle with finding my own pace and sticking to it and I struggle with finding my own creativity because, sometimes, it just doesn’t seem to be there.

High School Musical

Considering the fact that it is questionable that the entire cast was even in high school at the time, the all-around Disney Channel classic movie series, High School Musical, was in most ways a fantasy.

Maybe it’s just my skewed perspective, looking at this from small-school, small-town goggles covering my eyes and tinting my vision with rose hues. However, I don’t find that the filmmakers were trying to convey a realistic message. The characters were very stereotyped; the “jock-group” of basketball players, the “nerd-group” of socially awkward outsiders, a “new-girl” trying to find her place and ends up catching the attention of the biggest jock at the school.

I do believe that the overall message of the movie series, “follow your passion,” seems pretty realistic. It’s difficult to do nowadays. However, these movies, like any other Hollywoodized film looking to buy a couple more bucks while in the box office, take the idea and the message they’re trying to convey to a completely overdramatic and over-fantasized level. It seems almost as if at points in the films, the world stops spinning so the top basketball player can sing his heart out without the fear of judgement.

Despite the brutal truth of high school, fitting in does not come easy. The movies do a good job displaying the main character’s growth as he slowly learns to embrace himself even when his teammates don’t. He learns to do what he loves and doesn’t fear “standing out” from everyone else. In the end everyone seems to have a hidden passion locked away, whether it be dancing, cooking, playing an instrument, etc., which proves slightly unrealistic because there is very low probability that high schoolers would immediately just begin to feel completely comfortable with themselves and with sharing their secrets with their peers.

There are some true aspects to these films, as there are to all films if you delve deep enough into analysis, but the unrealistic aspects seem to outweigh the truth found. These movies entertained me as a younger girl (and I haven’t watched them recently but I’m sure I would still be entertained) and had me so excited to go to high school. I couldn’t wait to be a part of such a massive conception. Overall, based on my experience and experiences I have heard about, I do not believe this movie was realistic. Amusing, yes. Practical, no.