Educational systems, in general, have never appeared to be simple systems, but through exploration in this class, the complexity becomes even more apparent. When it comes to systems analysis, it is often too easy to focus on narrow elements of the system to solve the identified problem. This creates the potential issue of an implemented solution having a compounding impact on other elements in the systems because there was not a full understanding of the system. So that leads to the question of how we develop a full understanding of a system. I think it is necessary to begin to break the problem down into defined areas of the system, starting with the areas we know are impacting the system and the potential solutions to identified problems. After we define the areas we know, we have to begin to question what we truly know about the system to identify areas we do not know. This process can help us discover some of the hidden areas of systems as we attempt to understand how the system operates and what impacts our decisions will have on the system. This exploration process is also where we have to be careful that we are not making connections for the sake of making connections. Given enough time, I feel I could make a loose connection to just about anything within an educational system. So I guess to sum up my growing understanding of systems, I would have to say there is so much that we do not see at the surface level or when we are embedded in specific areas of a system. We have to intentionally take a step back and examine the system holistically to understand all of the different areas of the system and the connections these areas have to make the system function. Then we can truly understand potential solutions and the impacts they have.