Could space alien's pass the citizenship test? Would we even let them take it?The answer is, who cares?

Let's start out with the positives: My favorite part about this past week was undoubtedly the trip to the state department. The man who spoke to us (Greg I believe was him name), was very welcoming and had a lot of interesting stories to share. I think that working for the state department would definately be a fun experience, especially as someone who likes to travel and explore new cultures and parts of the world. It seemed like a place where you could make a difference in the IR field despite all the governmental red-tape.

Ok, so now for the not-so-good. Personally, I thought both conversations we had in class this week were way overdone and dragged out far to long. The hypothetical question about aliens landing on the white house lawn was good to get the conversation flowing about how countries would react, but I don't think it merited a whole class period. Also, I don't think the snake game is an effective way of facilitating debate and discussion. Although some may argue that it forces or allows everyone the chance to speak, I think debates are best when there can be dialouge and when people share their opinions because they want to, not because they are dictated to do so by a ball (a NYY ball to boot). I was ready to move on after one pass through the snake.

Friday's conversation about citizenship was interesting at first but I was burning to talk about the issue unfolding in Myanmar. For me, the discussion turned into a question of US domestic and immigration policy, not really about international politics and IR. I think it would have been much better to talk about military juntas who cut of phone and internet acces when monk's protest than wether or not MLK Jr should be included on a citizenship test. To me, it was a moot point after the first half hour. I feel like this is a growing trend in class and I really hope it gets turned around. I'm all for discussion but I think we can get more than one topic discussed in class. Often times we don't even debrief about how the topic at hand pertains to what we're learning. I guess I am just becoming restless with the class discussions. I am looking forward to the debate simulation, as perhaps that will birng about a change of pace. At this point a lecture would be more welcome to me than another far-fetched hypothetical.