Welcome - Read this First!

Hi,

Welcome to Government class! During the term we will be learning more about the functions of government and how government decisions and policies can have an impact on individuals and business owners.

I would like everyone in this class to contribute to the discussion on this page over the next seven weeks. I expect that everyone in the class will start at least one discussion or thread on this page during the next seven weeks and that everyone will contribute on an ongoing bases to the discussions or threads that are started by their classmates (and me.) Your participation will be worth 5% of your final marks and I may generate midterm and/or final exam questions from topics discussed on this blog.

A good way to start a discussion might be by looking for a news story that is of interest to you, summarizing that story (or provide a link to the story) and providing your opinion on the story. Your opinion might include action that you think should be taken, reasons that you agree or disagree with the idea put forward in the story or discussion around why the story will impact business owners or individuals.

Some common sense rules apply to this blog:
(1) You can disagree with someone else's opinion but you can not make a personal attack on that person. i.e. It is OK to say: I disagree that students should be required to post weekly on this blog because I feel in class discussion would be more beneficial. It is NOT OK to say: I think that posting on this blog is a stupid idea.

(2) Try to base your opinions on facts. You might have to do a little bit of research to back up your opinions.

(3) No profanity

Please read pgs 8 and 9 in your course pack and refer back to this summary of critical thinking when posting on this blog. Consider when reading news articles, others posts and when writing your own posts if your are distinguishing fact from opinion, are watching for faulty logic and looking out for propaganda techniques.

Hope you enjoy this exercise and I would welcome any feedback that you might have about it.

Amanda