Being a mathematician and scientist, I initially didn’t have any interest in this course, because it didn’t challenge or reinforce most of the skills required to be those two things. I never liked humanities courses, or anything titled “Interdisciplinary.” But having taken this course I can say that I actually enjoyed certain aspects of it and that I did learn new skills that I wouldn’t have in a math or science course, though they weren’t many and they weren’t too significant. Very basic elements of website design and excel skills are the two practical ones I learned in this course. Practical knowledge gained would be that of past immigration laws which allowed the demography of New York City to take its current form, and current immigration laws which affect Americans today, such as the Dream Act, which affects some of my friends. The majority of the course however, based itself upon the history of immigration of NYC, facts which I believe are mostly impractical but are interesting to know. Nonetheless, as annoyingly tedious as the coursework was (case in point – writing this post), it had its fun points, such as the walking tours, humorous class discussions, and class videos and tangents which used up class time.
The assignments themselves were, again, tedious, especially the statistical profile. However, I found the personal essay and interview valuable, for they prompted me to look deeper into my own roots, and why my parents decided to leave Guyana. Learning this has given me a more appreciate perspective of the fact that I was born in America and did not ever have to suffer the prevalent evils of third-world countries. I believe this is something many American-born citizens take for granted. But they cannot blamed for a lack of appreciation of current blessings after growing up in a profit-driven culture where the most exorbitant luxury is never enough and always precedes even greater future luxuries, which is clearly seen, for example, in the evolution of smartphones and cars.
So, I guess in the larger picture I can say this class has been beneficial to my perspective of life and intellectual well-being.
