F.Y.E. Final

Jalen Wilson F.Y.E. Final 12-3-20 1: ​The one concept I understand differently now after what I learned in class is the DEI key terms. The two terms that I learned about are the terms equality and equity as I didn’t have a clear understanding of those terms. Being an African American it would be expected of me to know what equality means, but I never really knew what it was I just know that’s what we were fighting for. The complications that come from this is that in the world today we mostly talk about equality without really teaching about equity. I didn’t know equity was a thing until I came to Georgia Southern and equity is when practices are fair so that everyone can thrive or be successful. I now see that equality isn’t always good as some people or places need more than one, with equality meaning everything is equal for all you would think that is good right. The reason this topic relates to why It changed my understanding is because of what happens to people of color and growing up I would always hear “ As a black boy you’re not equal to the white people.”, and I always knew what equality was, so I thought it was everything. My understanding of equality changed when I learned about equity as I learned to be equal is not beneficial for everyone. My understanding developed with the two by knowing that in the world we need more equity than equality, but that it would be hard to accomplish this. In today’s world, people want equality because no one wants others to have more. The topic also helped me realized equity that was around me my whole life, it’s just I couldn’t identify it. The special needs classes for people who need more help, the motor vehicles in stores for people who can’t walk around, and how some people need more time on a test in school. Those are examples of it throughout life but with that comes criticism as people will attack or take advantage of those types of things. The biggest development that came to my mind is that sometimes we need equality and sometimes we need equity, with different situations of problems call for different solutions. Equity is good for the world, and we may need more of it but everyone wants equality, so using equity will cause problems within the world. 2: One fixed statement that I made this semester that I would like to change is that I am not good at writing essays, since in college you have to write a lot of essays. I want to change this statement because saying or thinking like this makes me have a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is that you believe in one’s ability to innate rather than develop. Thinking like that will not help my writing skills or help me be confident in writing essays in college. By changing this statement it will make me better as a writer and as a college student. What helps me with this is knowing that my professors believe in me and seeing the growth in my writing through the rubrics helps me want to change this statement. One of the reasons it’s hard to change this statement is how hard it is for me to start or finish an essay, as it takes me a long time to write an essay. I also want to change this statement because it will not be useful to think like this when I am an adult and I’m writing an essay for my job or anything else. With writing, confidence is one thing I feel people should have as you should be confident in anything you write. The steps to take to change my fixed mindset to a growth mindset is by practicing my writing skills more so that my writing will improve. Focusing on the things that my professor points out I need to work on. A growth mindset is to believe that you can do better and achieve more. For me to develop a growth mindset, I need to believe in myself more when it comes to writing because that is one of my main issues. My main problem was my grammar in my essays and over this semester I have seen a big improvement in my writing skills when it comes to my grammar. By studying more on grammar and practicing how to put sentences together in my free time or over the break will help my mindset grow. As I am developing a growth mindset when it comes to writing it has made me feel better about myself and help my communication skills. Positive outcomes can come from a growth mindset with you seeing nothing stopping you, it helps you become the best version of yourself in whatever. Having a fixed mindset is like a barrier and barriers only hold us back from where we want to go in life. With a growth mindset, it will help me get ready for what I want to do in life and helping me achieve that in college. Having a better mindset on my writing in college will help me be more confident when I have to write a report or a speech, just better my communication skills so I can reach new levels of success that I thought would never be possible.