"What I Really Learned in this Junior Morality Course."
		This year Theology class has been a little different for me than it has been in years past.  This year the morality course concentrated on not only learning the facts and basic general knowledge about morality, but also how to apply different moral codes to my life in hopes of personal reflection as well as personal and spiritual growth.  We started the year with the Human Condition.  From examples in class, most memorably the "What the Bleep Do We Know" video, I was able to reassess, or perhaps assess for the first time my ideas on why things are the way they are.  Through analizing and applying Plato's Allegory of the Cave and lessons on making and reshaping our maps of life I was able to begin to understand the limits that all human beings are held to, and I began to understand that if I want to improve my life the key is constant vigilance and careful attention to new ideas, thinking things through systematically while still paying attention to my emotions.  I learned the propper way to begin to judge things, first discerning fact from belief and belief from opinion.  I learned the importance of knowing the facts and defining my terms.  I learned basic thinking and reasoning steps         Soon I was able to take on actual moral issues, deciding, with the guidence of my peers and other outside influences, what was moral and what was immoral.  For instance, the study of the morality of the Southern Whites involved in the lynching of African Americans showed me the importance of studying morality.  We as a people, nation, and race need to understand that some things just aren't right, in order to prevent atrocities like lynchings from taking place.  Through my study of Buddhism, and secifically the Right Speech experiment,  I was and am still able to continually improve the way I am around people and even the way I think to myself.  Similarly, through the study of the Sermon on the Mount, specifically what Jesus said regarding swearing: the your "yes" should mean yes and your "no" should mean no, I am able to improve my speech, especially my tendency to lie.  For if I am constantly trying to mean yes when I say "yes" then I am less likely to tell a lie.  I learned a process called the LISTEN Method ( List the facts, Imagine the possibilities, Seek insight outside my own, Turn inward, Expect help from God, and Name your decision).  And most recently I have learned about Medical and Business ethics, along with the Just War Theory.         The lessons I have learned inside the classroom are all important in their own way and most of the time they are all interrelated, but the most important learnnig I think I have done all year is what happens when I try to put what I have learned inside the classroom into my life experiences outside the classroom.  Through those experiences I am able to discover how I can take an example from class and actually apply it to my life and see how it changes for the better.  On the same token, I can see the things that I do that I am not proud of and I don't always know why I do them.  It is through the experience of failure that I learn the most about myself.  Failure reveals to me what I need to work on the most.  Failure leads me to experiencing greater success in the future.