My Beautiful Question Project
America was built on these morals and values to be a welcoming nation – “land of the free, home of the brave.” If we are taught to live by this, why are individuals becoming victims of discrimination? This semester, I enrolled in a Leadership 102 course that focused on exploring how receiving a liberal arts education can exhibit great leadership, by adducing the framework and language of my school, Agnes Scott College’s approach to leadership. In the beginning of the course work, we were asked to read the American Journalist Warren Berger’s view of what a beautiful question was. We were later asked to come up with our own beautiful question. He made this model for trying form and tackle a big, beautiful question. It was “Why-What If- How.” (7) I chose, “As a nation, what can we do to rid ourselves of this discrimination against people who are unlike us?” I chose this question because I feel individuals should not be judged or be a victim of discriminatory comments because of the color of their skin. During the duration of the course, we had professor rotations, and they each presented on a different topic which illustrated the bigger picture of the courses they taught. James Stamant, a professor of English Literature at Agnes Scott, presented on the topic of a reading by Djuna Barnes, “How It Feels to Be Forcibly Fed.” It was a story of her “stunt stories.” She was writing to tell the experiences of hunger-striking women’s suffrage activists. At first, when reading this write-up, I knew absolutely nothing about the reading. I immediately thought about Berger’s model that he devised, and I realized how helpful it was utilizing it in more understanding the reading, and even coming up with my own question. Also, when I was considering my question, I reflected on the presentation made by Katherine Smith, who was an Art History professor at Agnes Scott. One of the topics that really influenced my question was the reading “Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.” This reading focused on how we practice the of looking to make sense of the world we live in. This influenced my question because it is sad to say that every day we are faced with the challenges of discrimination. It could be race, gender, religious beliefs, creed, or even socioeconomic status. With saying this, this course has provided me with more knowledge I never thought I would have received from the plethora of professors that presented before us. I learned how view society in a different way, because having that skill is important to me. Not always looking at the glass halfway empty, as some would say. I am thankful for this course and I take pride in saying that I am a better leader because of what I took away from this this course.
Berger, Warren. A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Sturken, Marita. Cartwright, Lisa. Excerpts from Practices of Looking: An Introduction to VisualCulture. New York and Oxford: Oxford Printing Press. Culture. New York and Oxford: Oxford Printing Press.
