Blog #4: Moral Muteness

Moral muteness is an occurrence that I can say I have encountered multiple times in my life. I believe that everyone has been in this situation in his or her lifetime because it is very common to occur. I am going to talk about a particular event that occurred last summer when I was taking summer classes at a local community college.

Last summer I was taking a Math exam at a community college by my house. At this college, each student takes any course exam in the testing center. While taking my exam, I browsed the room. I have a hard time taking tests when people are constantly moving around or whispering. I looked up to see the kid in front of me looking at his phone several times. He would look up to see if the proctor was looking at him, but then would write down more answers on his exam. He peeked at his phone a couple more times, but then the proctor finally saw him. He said he was just checking the time and that was it. She let it go and as she walked away, he pulled out his phone again and began to record more answers down on his exam. He finished in about thirty minutes but the exam should have taken him far more time than that. It was so hard for me to watch this kid cheat on an exam and most likely receive a great grade on it. Myself and numerous other students in the room were taking that same exam, so this was unfair to us. I wanted to say something to the proctor, but I did not want to tattle on someone I did not know and then have everyone look at me.  As I struggled to take my test more, the kid finally turned his in relieved as can be. If I told the proctor on him, he would have gotten an automatic zero on the exam and then would have been asked to leave. I did nothing and just watched this situation occur. I have experienced this situation multiple times in high school and in college. I have never told on anyone cheating, but have always thought about it. Cheating happens a lot and not everyone gets caught all the time. They are the one who come out lucky.

After reflecting on this incident, I believe that I was avoiding two major values: courage and bravery. I did make a mistake and I was wrong for doing that, but I cannot change the past now. Courage and bravery are vital values that everyone should have and use during tough situations. I was nervous of what everyone would think of me, so I did not take action. After experiencing that event, I have now found myself to have the courage to speak up about situations. Not that one in particular, but other events that I would never have spoke up to before.

Blog #3 Reflection on Quizzes

After taking these three quizzes, I found my results to be accurate, but also very appalling. The first quiz I took was on age. This quiz showed me pictures of old and young people and I was asked to press a specific key when the faces showed up. Then, they added in good and bad words to make it more difficult. The exercise kept changing which made it very challenging to adapt to. The result of my quiz was that I prefer young people over old people. I thought this was very strange because I do not favor one over the other, I think of everyone equally. My score of a 35% showed that I have a strong automatic preference for young people over old people. I do not think this quiz was very accurate and I did not like my results. I feel very content with both age groups and do not have anything against one. Sometimes, I enjoy hanging out with my grandparents over my friends because I always learn something new and exciting when I’m with them. Stories and things that I have never heard before that make me look at like in a new perspective. I think I received this score because I am a young adult, but my score should really have been that I equally enjoy both groups. I think that young kids do not interact much with old people because they would rather hang with people of the same age group. I know that I have experienced this before when I wanted to go out with my friends and not stay home with my 94-year-old grandma. I later ended up deciding to stay home wit her and play games because you do not know how much time she has left, so spend it wisely. I see some people today care for elderly people whereas others do not care what happens to the person and I just think that is wrong. Although, my result was that I favor young people, but I think this is incorrect. At the beginning of the quiz, they asked us a few questions pertaining to old and young people, and I chose that I favor them equally. My results did not agree with this answer and I am surprised with the outcome.

The second quiz I took was over weight. This quiz tested me on my ability to categorize fat people to thin people. Then it also asked me to press a key for good and bad words. There were multiple exercises to this quiz, but I took the least amount of time on this one. After taking this quiz my results showed that I prefer thin people to fat people. I was very shocked by these results because I do not put down one group over the other. My score of a 27% showed that I have a moderate automatic preference for thin people over fat people.  These results I believe are false because I do not judge others just on their appearance. I am not sure as to why my results were this way but I am thoroughly mad with the outcome. I think that in our society today people do judge those that are overweight and criticize them until they are hurt. I think this is wrong and what you should really do is just help the person out and give them some advice. They may have a story behind why they are like that but you are judging them without even knowing. I have experienced this in my life before when girls on my basketball team in high school would be like “that girl is fat, so she is slow, we can win this now.” Or them saying that they wanted to guard that girl so it was less work on them. Although, those teammates did get scored on by that girl since they did not consider her athletic ability. All of us are equal, it does not matter how much we weigh or what we look like, and god made all of us the same. I am thoroughly surprised by my answers and do not support the results of this quiz.

The last quiz I took was on black and white people plus weapons and harmless objects. I had a tough time with this quiz because some of the weapons looked like harmless objects. I struggled to get these ones correct so this quiz took me the longest to complete. My results showed that I prefer black people with weapons compared to white people. I was very shocked by this because I do not favor weapons at all and I do not support one race over the other either. My score of a 30% showed that I have a moderate automatic association of blacks with weapons and whites with harmless objects. I think I got these results because I was maybe thinking of Black Americans having weapons over White Americans. This is not right because you see white people with weapons all the time too. In our society, I have experienced a young adult around my age with a deadly weapon. TJ Lane of Chardon Ohio did have a gun and shot three innocent students one day at school. My school was fairly close to Chardon High School, so I am very familiar with this incident. This is an event where a white person is charged with the possession of this object. Thus, this could also happen with a black person, but I am just telling you of an experience where it could be relevant for a white person too. I do not like the results of this quiz because I do not judge those on their skin color. I have many friends of both races and there is nothing different about any of them. We all hang out together and there is not one bit of awkwardness associated with our interactions. I think my score should have been I neither prefer black or white people, but equally prefer both groups.

After taking all three of these quizzes, I was shocked to see my results and I did not agree with them. This quiz did not change how I view others in our world today, but it was very eye opening to what experiences I have viewed in today’s world. I did not like taking these quizzes and I would not suggest anyone to take them in the future. They actually just made me very mad because a couple of answers cannot tell whom what group you favor the most. It all just seems surreal.

Blog #2 Relational Leadership Model

This is a clip from Mulan where Li Shang, captain of the Imperial Army, has to transform a group of men into heroes. Relational Leadership is displayed in the "I'll Make a Man out of You" scene.

I think this clip shows the leadership skills that Li Shang displays by him turning these men into soldiers. He is the primary leader in this movie and hopes to transform these men into strong, brave combatants. At the beginning of the clip, Shang shoots an arrow at a pole and then tells the men to reclaim it to show their masculinity. The soldiers fail and poorly execute each drill thrown at them. Shang shouts comments of empowerment to the men like, “lets get down to business, to defeat the huns.” The men are now ready to take on whatever challenge is in front of them. As the scene goes on, the men finally start to shine at each exercise. Shang’s team is now close to accomplishing their purposeful goal of defeating the huns. This will only be achieved if the men work together as a team and come out as heroes. I think the title of this song really shows how much of a leader Shang is because his specific goal is to make these individuals men and he is not giving up on them until that goal is met. Finally, at the end of the clip, the men are completing each task with ease and are excelling beyond belief. Shang also shows the inclusion trait with his group. He makes members comfortable and welcome by having them develop skills and strengths they did not think they were capable of achieving. For example, Mulan climbs to the top of the pole and throws down the arrow showing force and dedication to the challenge upon them. Lasty, I think the clip shows the process oriented trait. They start out as a group, remain as a group, and accomplish their goal as a group. They learn from values and skills from the captain and carry those on together. They work as a team and help one another and then all excel as a whole. I have watched this movie many times and I believe this clip displays many traits of the relational leadership model.