Day 9: BodyCombat, Reading

What went well?

1. Went to a BodyCombat class (free trial week) at the gym. It was a good workout, and I also met a really friendly fellow student there.
2. Got quite a bit done - read 6 chapters today for my classes: two from The loss of sadness: how psychiatry transformed normal sorrow into depressive disorder for Sociology of Mental Illness and four from Who controls our schools? American values in conflict for Sociology of Education.
3. All of the laundry machines were free when I went to do my laundry.

What did I learn? 

• I need to get more efficient at reading and taking notes from readings, especially on-screen.
• Group classes are far more motivating and make me work harder than trying to push myself with willpower. There's something about having an instructor scream at you and the social aspect of not wanting to be the only one dropping the intensity.
• From The loss of sadness: It's possible that the epidemic of depression may be partly caused by diagnostic inflation, wherein people experiencing "normal sadness" in reaction to losses such as valued relationships, status and goals, are diagnosed major depressive disorder because the diagnostic criteria only consider symptoms and fail to take into account context.
• From Who controls our schools: We want it all! Schools are like a "shopping mall", expected to fulfil an incredible array of goals and services (e.g. traditional academic goals, vocational training, social & emotional development, life skills, physical education, psychological health, extra-curricular activities). But if we want to decrease the gap between our expectations and the performance of schools, we need to either focus on a more limited set of priorities, or increase the resources given to schools. We can't have it both ways.