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Professor Skog
BUS 1050
29 April 2016
My Renaissance
In Business 1050 at Salt Lake Community College, the semester was spent reading from
a book, Critical Thinking by Edward Engh who had completed a search grant for the college and
incredibly enough currently teaches at the college as an assistant professor. Critical Thinking
deals with the way you as an individual make sense of questions and answer them to the highest
ability of your knowledge, all while thinking critically and analyzing the information you are
given. Through the multiple discussions, readings and assignments I was touched by the
Industrial Revolution, a true renaissance of its time, and could immediately correlate this to my
renaissance.
A renaissance can be described as a cultural rebirth in society, but it can also be a period
of time in your life where you are rediscovering yourself. During the 18th century, the industrial
revolution was a time of transitioning between man operated machines into self-operated
machinery which brought along a working class, inventors, entrepreneurs, factories of production
and efficiency. One of the discussions involved a video PBS- Mill Times explaining how even
though this change was a benefit, there were also major drawbacks like the work atmosphere.
Employees were worked through tough conditions on average of 12-13 hours per day for a total
of 70+ hours per week receiving a small wage of $3-4 and spending $1.25 of the wage to pay for
your boarding room located near the factory. If you were lucky, you didnt have any
responsibilities on Sunday and it became one of the only days to relax. Here is what absolutely
saddened me, when factories started to drop in profit, they would increase the speed of the
machinery and make workers look over multiple machines, all while getting paid a lower wage.

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Although the subject rocks back and forth, I couldnt get over how amazing people like Samuel
Slater were in the process of putting in all their effort to create a place of production.
Samuel Slater was known as the Father of the American Industrial Revolution
essentially for bringing the British textile idea to the United States. Not only was he a wealthy
individual, he was intelligent enough to start and run this business to create a security for his
family (who also helped run the business). His idea has had a domino effect of success up to
present day today and I couldnt imagine living in a world where I would need to sheer my own
wool. Mr. Slater was willing to share his ideas with the world and created an empire for his time.
With that being said, there are third world countries out there who are still struggling to become
an industrialized society, and its tough not having the resources. For this reason alone, I strongly
believe you could share your ideas, opinions, thoughts, theories, most of what lies in your head.
The reason I say most of what you have compiled is because theres a solid line between being a
professional human being with standards and someone who will offend and hurt a nation with
their words. This is what critical thinking is, learning from others (how else are you supposed to
learn?) and making the most of what you know. Whether you decide to put what you know to use
and create a name for yourself is up to you.
In my scenario, Im a typical college student who works part time, attends school full
time and strives to attain a good GPA. I have had a complied amount of stress from personal
conflicts all in this semester and have looked and the different scenarios throughout this class as
a source of motivation. I loved Mr. Slaters scenario using his ideas to make something of
himself. You can take a stressful situation to break down and give up or you can think about the
situation, analyze the best path to follow and go that route. I learned from Samuel Slater that
critical thinking doesnt have to be in a learning environment, it works everywhere you go.
Theres a source of happiness knowing I can use these skills from now on until I take my last

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breath to do what is best for me.
Overall, the knowledge I acquired from this course is something I will continue to cherish
and use. I believe this is a course essential for incoming college students to rewire the way they
think and perceive their thoughts. Critical thinking provided a new aspect of deciding what to do
next and how to go about handling the next trial thrown at you.

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Works Cited

Engh, Edward. Critical Thinking. New York: Pearson Education Company. 2015. Print.
Macaulay, David, dir. PBS- Mill Times. 1 April 2012. Film.