In education, tests measure not what matters to students, but what matters to professors. This is on balance a very good thing, but it has its shortcomings. One of the biggest drawbacks with standard assignments is that they can fail to respect the different and unpredictable ways a class will educate particular students.
This assignment is one of the ways I am trying to compensate.
In the first week of this course you were supposed to complete an "entrance
exam" which polled both your factual knowledge about this topic and
your opinions. It serves as a snapshot of where you were at the beginning of
the semester.
Review that examination and look for three areas where this course
has affected your thinking in ways important to you. Write an essay describing
to me how the readings, class time, conversations with students, and/or written
assignments have changed your thinking on each area.
(It is not necessary for the course to have changed an answer from "false"
to "true" (or vice versa) in order for it to have affected your
thinking. It may have reinforced a prior conviction, or made you more or less
decided, or given you new reasons to hold your position, or new reasons to
think that your position is more or less important than you had considered
it before.)
If the greatest transformations are in matters that are not addressed
on the entrance exam, then you may address them instead.
Please keep your paper three pages, double-spaced, and follow the directions in my handout for writing papers. Remember, I want to see proper style, clear writing, a thorough answer to the question, and explicit citations of course materials.