Project description

Ideologies can be defined as the frameworks in which  human beings interpret their world. Our ideologies affect everything about the decisions we make and everything about the world around us. Ideology can be communicated in many different ways; anything from words to body language to art and music. In this project, the junior class at animas highschool explored our own unique ideologies and how the exposure to rhetoric has shaped our beliefs over time. Our essential questions focused on what ideologies are central to the American experience, and how they evolved over time, what is the relationship between ideology and rhetoric, how has rhetorical discourse shaped the American experience historically, What do we believe about America, and how has our own personal ideology been formed by our encounters with rhetorical discourse. And furthermore; What important rhetorical contributions can I make to the conversation?

 

This project was the perfect opportunity for me to delve into anything and everything I'm passionate about. Particularly, in my situation, the affect that growing up has had on my soul, my feeling of fullfillment. Society, education, and so many other factors have changed me forever, and I have been aching for so long to just yell and scream and cry out to all of humanity to hear me. I'm alive, and to me thats so extrordinary. Its more extraordinary than anything I've ever experienced yet I'm still confined within these walls as if I should live my one precious life according to a timeline written out for what will generate the most wealth or the most comfort. I am more than my skin and bones, my house, the clothes I wear. I am more than a grade point average and I am so much more than any sort of label or description or plan you could try to apply to my marvelous existance. My rhetoric tests ideas, it shapes "knowledge", it builds community, or as I'd like to call it, interconnectivity. It attempts to desperately link all of these souls and all of these heartbeat just yearning for a purpose.

 

I connected tremendously with this project. It was completely eye opening and revolutionary for me, coming from a traditional highschool to be pondering things I think about every single day. It amazed me and empowered me to maybe think that I'm not shouting in an empty void. I feel so desperately alone and insignificant sometimes, and I get so caught up in all of these labels and "priorities". All those things pull me away from truly being alive, and I wanted to maybe, just maybe connect to even one person who felt the same as I. I thank my lovely teacher for giving me the power to be more than just a number in a gradebook. (Thanks Jess) 

 

One of the most difficult parts of this project was just leaving it behind. And making all these wonderful valid powerful points only to face the irony of still being a part of this collossal system and being this number and having my future depend on those numbers and its just so terribly hypocrytical of me and everyone surrounding to be moved by such an emotional performance and my lyrics only to return to our little boxes and little systems. It hurts to express myself and knowingly have to return to feeling crushed on a day to day basis. It hurts to describe me coming less and less in contact with my soul while experiencing it nonetheless. The hardest part of this project is the irony of it all. Good god. *sigh*

 

I have learned a lot about Rhetoric and had to come face to face with the fact that I am constantly enveloped in it. It was really cool to be able to have ways to describe all these things that I know are terribly wrong, such as logical fallacies. And it was so interesting to see the values that my fellow classmates hold true to themselves and how different they are from my own. As a young American, I believe that it is so important to understand one's own beliefs because how else will you decide what to do when faced with decisions. It is important to try to analyze what people are saying and what drives the reason that they are saying it. I've discovered so much about myself through this project, and it has helped me tremedously in trying to find a belonging in this life and understanding why I feel so alone all the time.