Monday, October 28, 2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Truth and Deception
I feel that in mathematics, deception may be necessary to knowing. I feel this because I believe that a teacher, when teaching mathematics, may need to use a lie to make the truth clear. The teacher may say "SIN means System In Numbers, right?" to get us all to say "No!" And then think about what it really does mean, not the acronym, but the concept in and of itself.
Perhaps this can be applied even on an elementary level, such as talking about the commutative and distributive properties. For example, a teacher might say to a student, "So, 5 x 6 = 30, so that means that 5+6 = 30, right? Wrong, it's actually 6 x 5 = 30" and so on. I think that in many cases, deception is necessary to knowing. But I do think that knowing can also be achieved by the truth and the truth is usually a better way to learn.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
ToK/CAS Reflection
My senses play a role in my action CAS activities. This is because when I am doing active things, such as dancing or running or going to the gym, I feel the physical aspect of the dance in my muscles and I hear the music that I'm listening to when doing these activities. Imagination has played a huge role in a lot of my planning for CAS, especially for Sturgis Passion Project. Julia and I have come up with all of our ideas by ourselves and thought about how they impact people and the way that the world works. In addition, I have had to use reasons to determine what projects are important to me and why. It has been interesting to see the ways in which I view issues I am passionate about as intertwined in larger global issues, and reason through how others view the connected, larger issues.
"I was up on a ladder, 6 feet up in the air, with both hands applying wood filler to hole in the roof created by nails that had been removed. This ladder was rickety and it was being held by a girl that I had never even met before that day. I had to immediately trust her, and believe that she would prevent me from falling, even though I didn't know her at all and didn't have any idea if she even knew what she was doing. She kept me safe the entire time, and I stayed up there until the job was done. We collaborated on keeping me from falling out of the ladder, and I even went up again later. I conquered my fear of heights with this girl, and we became good friends by the end of the day."
(2nd reflection on building a house with Habitat for Humanity)
I believe that faith was a way of knowing that played a role in this reflection. Faith is the way of knowing that is most similar to my idea of trust, and I trusted this girl just because I had to. If I hadn't trusted her, I would have become scared and panicked and maybe even hurt myself by accident! The emotional way of knowing was also a factor in this reflection when I say "I conquered my fear of heights." I could make this statement because I knew that I had conquered it through emotional connections: I felt proud of myself. I wouldn't have felt proud if I didn't know that I had conquered my fear, so it was through emotion that I knew what I had done.
I said in my proposal for the orchestra that my learning outcomes were both "increased awareness of my strengths and areas of growth" and "undertaking new challenges." I think that a good reason to claim these things is that am going to increase my awareness of myself and undertake new challenges. I felt emotionally devoted to doing these things, and that's why they were valid learning outcomes to select. Musical notations are a language in themselves, and this is a way that I will be undertaking increasing my knowledge through the language way of knowing. It is challenging to learn the language of music, so that is what I am increasing my understanding of in this CAS activity. Also, I will using sense perception (hearing, seeing the music, and feeling the music) as I get better at the cello.
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