"In our first two weeks, you have read two articles, seen several videos and been engaged in several discussions related to the concept of academic leadership. At this point, and in your own words, what does the concept mean to you? What subjects or interests do you have a sophisticated, intellectual understanding of that you may want to turn into a major academic project in this class? How do people sometimes abuse academic knowledge to manipulate others? How would you feel if someone used your work to manipulate others (as Jared Diamond claims Mitt Romney has)? How can creating academically sophisticated, intellectual leaders help prevent such people from taking advantage of others the way they do? How can this create a stronger democratic society?
The meaning of Academic Leadership can be interpreted in multiple ways, as I have learned this week. The most important meaning, in my opinion, is that Academic Leadership means the responsibility of a student or teacher to succeed independently both academically and socially, resulting in becoming a more complete person. The creation of these kinds of "leaders" is vital for healthy and growing communities present in all institutions such as schools or work places. Thanks to these people, these communities can be clean of negative contributors that take advantage of others. An example of this taking advantage is the Jared Diamond-Mitt Romney conflict. In this situation, Romney used the studies of Diamond in such a way that would favor the politicians ideals. Diamond wrote a book (Guns Germs and Steel) about how a nation achieves wealth and others dont, so Mr. Romney uses his own idea to contradict the studies. He says that, "as written in the book, a nations wealth depends on the physical features." The twist is that Diamond did not mean this in his book As guessed, Romney's strategy lacks academic leadership. This clearly shows the importance of creating true academic leaders. The formation of these kinds of people is necessary for a striving world community. Leaders like this are socially aware and prevent negative situations like the one Mitt Romney created. This will create a strong democratic society since healthy leaders will always know how to treat the people and their own ideas.
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| Diamonds novel |
A subject that I have a strong intellectual interest to are sports, especially football, or soccer. One of the most complex yet interesting components of the game are the fans, and how they choose their team and how they treat rivals. During my own experience, I have seen how people can be influenced immensely by their team, whether it is a strong one or a less-winning team. Their attitudes towards peers of rival teams at school or work environments amazingly vary. For example, if ones team is having a winning period, the big fans are proud and constantly boast the victories of the own team and losses of the rivals. Does this make them a good leader, even for the future? Will it influence them in the future? I would really appreciate the study of this all, to understand how it works, not only for soccer, but other sports teams.
