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PHS IB TOK at Play!
The purpose of this blog is to open a discussion forum for ideas, ramblings, debates, and random thoughts that pass through the heads of the students presently in Poudre High School's Theory of Knowledge Program.
PHS IB TOK at Play!
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83 comments:
While writing my Knower Autobiography, I thought that it would just be another boring question-and-answer paper. Instead, I had an opportunity to take a look at the real me. The "me" that gives myself answers to questions, insight into philosophy, and tranquility into my life. But I also saw the "me" that sparked my anger when distressed, that invoked hateful thoughts, and that brought ignorance to myself. I learned that no one, not Socrates, not Issac Newton, not Confucius, could attain truth without knowledge, and I realized I know just a tiny piece of the pie of truth.
I didn’t really have an epiphany because it was an assignment. However, during times where I just think, I do realize certain beliefs that I feel passionately about. Things that can’t really be justified but it’s like a religion… just cool beliefs and stuff.
~TC Liu (tsizzinc)
I didn't so much have an epiphany, but i do agree with what ethan said. It was interesting because before people could ask me about myself and I would say that I'm generally a nice person. After that assignment however, people ask me that and I feel like "yes, I'm generally nice" but I also want to list stuff that I see as "flaws" in myself as well as what made me that way. It's an intersting thought to be analyzing yourself and it kind of shocked and scared me with some of the things I do and the reasons behind them. Like ethan said: I only have a tiny little slice of who I am and the knowledge I need. Before I thought I knew everything about me... but now I know that that's not possible and I'm still growing up, I'm not even sure I'm "me" yet.
I didn't really have an epiphany but I hadn't thought about how my lack of a religious affiliation affects my knowledge. To me, it is much more obvious when someone is religious that it would affect them, but not being religious affects you just as much.
Katie A
I agree with Ethan's inicial responce. I was planning on blowing if off, and in turn, making up a lot of the stuff. Yet, when I actually read the document, I was amazed. I was able to realize what makes me who I am. I know that I am extremely logical, yet I was able to see where my emotions actually come in.
When I was doing this assignment, I was amazed at how other people have affected my beliefs. I don't mean that I accept their beliefs as my own, but rather that my interactions with them affect what I belief to a level that I didnt realize. Funnily enough, younger kids affect me more than people my age because they constantly look up to me as a role model, which makes me more aware of my own actions and beliefs.
Oliver
Upon writing my Knower Autobiography I didn't have much of an epiphany. Most of the promt questions are ones that I have been thinking about myself for the last few years. Coming into highschool many people tell you that it is a time in your life that you will find yourself, and I think that alot of times highschool students expect some kind of miracle to happen that will suddenly give them a better idea of who they are. One thing that I have noticed in my life, is that the more I analyze my past and see the events and situaions that have shaped my knowledge and perception of the world the more and more I understand my reactions to things and how I percieve others, thus I understand myself better. One thing that I think could have made the assigmnet more interesting is not what has happened in the past but how you feel about it now. What would you change if you could change something, what do you aspire to be in the future?
When I was writing it, I realized how much I had already been thinking about most of them. Like Kati said earlier, I was told that high school is when you really start to know yourself because thats when your beliefs start to be challenged and you really have to defend them. Also I realized how much influence various authorities have had on my life, from my parents (whether it be that I agree with their beliefs or reject them just because its my parents that believe it) to friends, teachers, media etc.
I'm not quite sure you could call it an epiphany, but I did find something very intersting while writing the Personal Profile as a Knower. I discovered that everything I mentioned that I believed influenced my knowledge seemed to remind of something else that influenced my knowledge. After writing a bit further, I seemed to realize that EVERYTHING I've ever done has made me who I am today, and thus influenced how I approach certain situations.
Rick Andrews
I've known for a while now that I have problems accepting justifications behind religion. Doing this assignment helped me to realize that the source of this difficulty is due to an experience that I had as a relatively young child. I went to a Christian camp with my best friend as a third grader and at the time, I didn't understand what the term 'religious camp' meant. The camp turned out to be the whole 'shoving religion down your throat' approach to spreading Christianity. I took the experience extremely negatively, in that at the time, I considered myself a Catholic, which is still a Christian religion, though apparently not the right one. Because of that, and then being told by my best friends in 6th grade only 3 years later that I was going to hell because of the slight differences within our Christian beliefs, I began to see religion, as a whole, as a very negative thing. I've held a grudge and am way to quick to judge those who consider themselves religious. I know this about myself. This assignment helped me to realize the source of that grudge. It's definitely something I'd like to change. But how can we change the minds of those who already have an opinion formed? I am trying really hard to force myself to have an open mind and not judge immediately. But it's extremely difficult as I've harbored this idea for so long without really realizing or acknowledging that I've had it. Now I know about myself why I react to religion so strongly and so negatively. I just have to figure out how to stop that judgement from being second nature.
An epiphany that I had while writing my Personal Profile as a Knower was that I really come to respect those guys that I find are able to take a step away from their ego/horomones for a little bit and just get to know the person they're talking to. I play video games in a big group of friends twice a month, and just recently when I went, I was playing and a guy (lets call him Ryan) noticed that I was good. He assumed that, since I was a girl, he could beat me easily at the game, that I would pose no threat. I ended up thoroughly trouncing him and we've since then become good friends, getting to know each other between games. I really find that that makes me want to talk to a guy: when he can say "You know what? I may have judged you wrongly according to my ego/horomones." It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
~Clem
I did not really have an epiphany, but after/during writing the Knower Autobiography I really started to consider how life experiences, location, friends, and even just people you meet and learn something from are very integral and important in shaping how you view knowledge and what you "know." After doing the justification activity I really realized how heavily I rely on justifying knowledge through logic, self-awareness, and acquaintance. Considering both of these activities in context, I find it interesting that I started really realizing how small experiences can shape how you view knowledge and what you know.
When writing my Knower Autobiography I had an epiphany about how bias I actually am. When describing my age, sex, relgion and personal triats or experiences I found that all those things really make me lean in a certain direction right away. I always thought of myself as a little bias but the assignement made me realize that even with small thoughts about people (ex: their looks)the things that make me up make me bias. Hopefully, with this knowledge I can try to not judge so quickly.
I didnt really have an "epiphany" while I was writing my paper. I did realize, however, that the people who consider themselves "Liberal" are sometimes just as close minded as "conservatives". When you are a no-bounds "liberal", sometimes you disregard other's opinions, including those of the people that you consider "close minded". By refusing to listen to EVERYONE'S ideas, you are being just as conservative and narrow minded as the people you seek to oppose.
-Adrienne Craig
I didnt really have an "epiphany" while I was writing my paper. I did realize, however, that the people who consider themselves "Liberal" are sometimes just as close minded as "conservatives". When you are a no-bounds "liberal", sometimes you disregard other's opinions, including those of the people that you consider "close minded". By refusing to listen to EVERYONE'S ideas, you are being just as conservative and narrow minded as the people you seek to oppose.
-Adrienne Craig
I pretty much agree with TC. I didn't have an epiphany or anything of that sort but I did really enjoy the assignment on the whole. Although I haven't had any epiphanies or anything, I have felt like I've been beating my brain against a wall at certain points in time (example: Allegory of the Cave) but Mrs. King says that's when you know you're having a good TOK day so hopefully that means I'm getting something out of it.
I'd like to consider myself pretty self-aware, and I found that most of what I wrote on the assignment was stuff I think about on a pretty regular basis. However, the fact that both of my parrents are Psychologists (a fact that I just recently "really" realized when my mother started practicing part-time this summer) and that, as a result, I view most human interaction through a psychological lens (or at least as much of one as I've picked up over the years) was kind of an epihany.
My bad...the bell rang and I forgot to sign my name to that last one...It wasn't Nupers, it was me...She was simply kind enough to sign in for me. My apologies.
By writing the Knower Autobiography, I noticed that I am so different from everyone. I mean, of course we're all different and special in our own way. I got that message from Barney a long time ago but while writing I realized that each person is really coming from such a different background and while we have experienced some of the same things, we have reacted differently and had different ideas and thoughts. I don't know why I never fully noticed this before. Hmmm...
While writing the Knower Autobiography, the epiphany that I experienced was that I have recently formed new beliefs on top of my older beliefs and gained justification for them. For a long time, I have believed many different aspects, but they have been built into me. I've never really gone into depth in my believes or thought about why I have them. After doing the assignment and receiving the list of justifications, I can think about my beliefs and the justifications for those beliefs. I can also change any beliefs that I suddenly realize have no justification and that I don't even really believe anymore. Also when doing the 27 questions and backing up each belief you had with justification I realized that other than logic, my beliefs are mainly based on authority. This made me think that I have been excepting beliefs from authority figures while not really thinking through the belief first. The assignment and class time since, the assignment, has given me the chance to question my beliefs and find proper justifications for them.
I learned that as much as I'd like to think I know a lot about myself, I had a really hard time coming up with answers. I mean, once I got the basis down I could just keep writing and fill up pages; but I really don't like writing about myself and I never really thought about how that effects my ability to actually write about myself. I think of myself mostly in feeling, I consider how I feel about things, but other than that I don't really focus on translating beliefs and whatnot into words, so it was a very interesting experience to have to actually put that into writing. Kind of like the answers to these questions are taking me a long time to come up with, because I think in emotion rather than words, so I don't really know what to write until I can get an idea translated into words. That sounds weird but yeah, that's basically it.
My last post was really repetitive, sorry about that.
I think that people like to think of themselves as just, fair, and unbiased. I know I do. While writing my Knower Autobiography, I looked through my past: living in different countries with huge varieties of people made me feel open-minded and experienced. But after completing the assignment, I realize I bring a lot of these events and experiences to the table and use them to compare or judge other things. Every aspect of my life gave me a new perspective or a certain lens to view things. These parts of me that are now firmly a part of my belief system and personality do in fact give me bias which I had ignored before.
An epiphany that occurred for me while writing the Knower Autobiography is that I did not realize all the influences and factors that have created the individual who I am today. I came to appreciate that everything from what languages I speak, experiences big or small, growing up in Taiwan, being raised in a Christian and conservative setting and finally the people around me have defined the person “Elliot Ross.” All of these things have shaped not only my personality, but my knowledge and beliefs as well.
I didn't realize until recently that I was a deeply religious person. Buddhism isn't the main religion here, so I suppose it's less easy to recognize. Also the character of the religion itself, one which doesn't involve such things as preaching or conversion, contributes to the idea. How, I thought, could I possibly be devotedly religious when 90% of the people who know me don't know my religion? Yet when I thought about it further, it became clear that I live my life by my Teaching, not simply because it is the Teaching but because my independently created morals match its contents perfectly.
I think I have been pretty aware of myself and where I am coming from for awhile, so I didn't get to have an epiphany with this particular assignment. But it did remind me of an series of emails with one of my friends that kind of sent my head spinning. She and I have rather different views politically and religiously, but instead of debating, we have had some really intense conversations, just trying to figure out where the other person is coming from. Until this particular conversation, I had been extremely pro-choice with regard to a woman's right to an abortion. I am still pro-choice, but she really made me examine the grounds for my belief. For the first time, I understood where the "other side" was coming from. I think I am very lucky to be friends with someone who is in some ways so different from myself. Being friends with her has really made me open my eyes, question my own view of the world, and try someone else's on for size. Although I am aware of my self and my biases, I need to keep working on understanding the people I disagree with, try to figure out where they are coming from.
Really, while writing my Knower Autobiography, I realized how chauvanistic I sound. Now, I know that in our society today I may be mugged and beaten in the alleyway of some street in New York City, but also know that I'm gay, so really, I'm kind of conflictual. I really like having women work in the kitchen while men go off and do their work (no offence ladies), but I also like seeing changes being made in the world that benefit mankind (such as Bush getting out of office). Really (man I do like the word 'really' in this post), I'm at odds, but writing my knower autobiography helped me recognize that and to establish it. Yeah, that was pretty much my only epiphany.
So I'm not actually sure who you are... bway_guy but if I did, I'd address your name here:
Anyways, can you see why your idea of 'women in the kitchen' might spark seriously insulted people with intense responses? Is there a reason that you like having women in the kitchen? Is that like a perfect American family idea that has been imprinted on your mind as what is 'right'? I really want to know why you have that viewpoint before I allow myself to get all ruffled up and list off the reasons why I think that your viewpoint is extremely controversial. Where are you coming from? What justifies your belief? What perspective are you coming from?
An epiphany I’ve had recently was that I have a very hard time justifying knowledge through just faith or intuition alone, whether that knowledge is acquaintance or descriptive. I need more than just a gut feeling to know that something’s true, though there are a few exceptions. Whenever I try to evaluate an issue, I will try to do so as objectively as possible rather than let emotion cloud my vision.
I'm with "Pumanupes" on this one - would you mind elaborating upon your epiphany, bway_guy? What is your justification for women belonging in the kitchen? I believe women are equally entitled to "go off and do their work," based on my experience that I, as a girl, have found myself just as competant as any guy (sometimes more so) in many situations outside the realm of homemaking. Altough I enjoy baking every once in a while, by no means do I want my life confined to a kitchen and household! Is gender equality not one of the changes being made in the world that will benefit mankind (pardon me, human kind)? I would like to understand your justifications for that belief, where you are coming from with it, since it goes against some of the truths that I hold dear.
My personal experiences and a woman make me beleive that women are always equal to mean if not more but some time this right isn't given.
So after that knower journal thingie, and those yes/no questions, I got to thinking about the theory of life after death, and really how do we know that we actually do exist and that everything around us isn’t really an illusion. These thoughts reminded me of a moment in television a couple of year ago. On the show “Freaks and Geeks”, some of the kids were talking about how they know if they really exist or not, and one of them says something along the lines of, “What if this isn’t real? What if this is just someone’s dream? And if the person wakes up, will we still be here? What if we were just that dog over there’s dream?” This notion of being that dog over there’s dream, freaks the person out so much, that when his friend contradicts him, and goes to wake up the dog, the guy completely flips out. So I guess my epiphany was how do we know that this isn’t all someone else’s dream? What really is our existence? And should we wake up that dog over there? Or should we flip out and, for lack of a better phrase, let that sleepy dog lie?
I've wondered about the dream reality thing before. I mean, when I'm asleep and dreaming, i have no idea that it isn't reality, meaning i've had some bad dreams that i've been pretty relieved to wake up from, and realize that they were not reality. I guess we have no way of knowing for certain that their isn't another reality which is our dream state, and you just pop back every time you fall asleep. I mean, I suppose it's possible that the waking world is only a dream that you have while you are asleep in another reality. Just an interesting thing to think about.
I have recently realized how few things I really have guiding my decisions outside of myself. I have absolutely no religious affiliation, and I have really realized how this specifically affects me. I don't have any set code guiding my decisions, other than what I personally believe from experience and intuition as right and wrong. I never realized how much I really rely on my own thinking/feeling to guide how live.
One epiphany that I had when writing my Knower Autobiography was realizing how my living location (e.g. home, rural or urban) plays a role in my knowledge and how I know things. The city that I live in definitely affects what I know. Living in a more out-doorsy city makes me more environmentally conscious. Also, the more suburban setting of my home changes what I know (e.g. I am more familiar with carpooling rather than riding public transportation). This limits my knowledge of rural and urban life and such things like milking a cow or living in very close quarters with people.
One thing which i realized was that how little i know about myself. Sure i got a 86% on my own quiz on facebook (stop talking about it philip lol) anyhow... It really made me think actually on what i truly believe and everything. I guess you could say it confused me once in a while.
I'm not sure if I would call it an epiphany or not, but I did realize how much I had to think about myself, and how I really don't know myself very well. Now, why that isn't much of a surprise some days, it was interesting to notice that I didn't realize that anything like that mattered, or for a fact, that I had to think that hard about what in my life formed my perspective, and more importantly, how. So, really, I don't know much about myself at all, I just think I do. I'm also one of those people who fails their own quizs about how well they know themselves...
While I was writing my Knower's Autobiography, I realized how TOK actually helps one realize why they act, behave, or believe in a certain way. I think that the assignment helped me really find out my reasons for why I justify my beliefs, the primary reason being my cultural background. I realized that most of my beliefs were ones that I had developed from childhood with the guidance of my parents. In turn, the beliefs that they passed onto me were embedded in their culture. Although some of my beliefs, such as that on my religion, have started to change, my parents were still the main reason for why I even thought about religion and its importance in my life. It was sort of scary to find out that my parents influenced and are continuing to influence several of the beliefs that I once thought were "mine" when they're actually based on authority.
Here's something I realized AFTER writing my Knower Biography:
I played the Pokemon Trading Card Game and watched the TV show for years, from around 5th grade to 8th grade (2001 to 2004). Listening to the lyrics of the Pokemon theme song, I hear echoes of many of my personal motivations: "I want to be the best, like no one ever was", "I know it's my destiny", "in a world we must defend", and, more recently, "to catch them is my quest; to train them is my cause". I know it sounds silly, but I more or less saw myself as Ash, such as when Ash "saved the world" in one of the movies, and I kind of took on that persona.
I didn't realize this until some time last year, but my time devoted to Pokemon has changed how I think about things, and which stuff I choose to study and know.
What I learned during my knower profile is that I really don't know anything. I mean, there are lot's of my beliefs that I justify simply through intuition and nothing else. I don't really think of many of the other justifications.
An epiphany that I had while writing my Knower Autobiography is that slight differences in our lives and personal experiences can change the way we think about the world. When I was going through the assignment and talking about how I'm a 17 year old white male from Colorado it didn't seem all that exciting but then I thought about how many other people there are in the class just like me. Even though so many of us fit these stereotypes our personalities and beliefs are entirely different which is a perspective that I had never looked at before.
To bway_guy,
Honestly, as awful as it sounds to be for women to be in the kitchen all day (you dear friend, have obviously never seen me, a woman, at work in a kitchen) I give you an applause for being so open with your very unique statements. Your beliefs are somewhat contradicting amoungst themselves along with other peoples, but I admire your open-minded-ness to such.
In reflecting upon myself in myself as a knower, I came to the conclusion that no matter how much I delve into myself and reasons behind my developement to this point, I can never truly understand myself. On a surface level it's easier to read into my dislikes and likes and whether I agree or disagree to certain things, but deeper down, I have no idea truthfully who I am. I enjoyed the assignment as it had me assess certain areas of myself, and honestly I can say I am glad I do not know everything about myself yet. It truly makes life so much more worthwhile.
bway_guy, I'm curious not only to your justification of your statement, but as to where you actually stand. It seems like you're trying to merge reactionary and radical and it's rather confusing. And also, I am wondering whether or not you would take action upon making women be in the kitchen and homestead or whether it is mere opinion that you're not active on?
When I had to look back at my profile to write this comment, I noticed that I justified reasons that I do not know certain things almost as often as I justified the reasons that I do know certain pieces of information. The only reason that I think of why I did that is because that somehow I felt there were things things that I should know (or know better), such as Spanish, or having first-hand experiences of other cultures. I think that there are so many things that I don't know, that it's hard for me to look at myself and see what's there, when I see so many places where something I have yet to learn will change what I already know. For example, when I was younger I KNEW that my parents knew everything because they could answer every question I had (logic). But that changed because now I KNOW that was just a belief, because they actually do not know everything because they can't help me with my questions about math anymore (empirical evidence). I guess through all of this I realized that the one thing I do know is that I'm not always right, even though I really like to be right (and as my sister would say, "You always try to be right, but your not, so just STOP TALKING!").
When studying the justifications, I realized I rely a lot on logic to back up my beliefs. This sort of surprised me, because I consider myself a compassionate person with faith in many things. Is it normal to be logical yet emotional?
I did not have an epiphany while writing my knower biography but I do feel I learned something. I realized that what I can justify has to do with being American. In addition to different cultural differences I remembered that my friends in Germany are not allowed to choose subjects. Classes are assigned all the way until graduation. I, however, have been able to choose what subjects I take. Therefore if I am able to justify something more authoritatively than someone else if I have chosen to study that subject in school. I also may be able to more properly justify an American idea to someone from another culture due to the fact that I have been exposed to the idea for my entire life. I did not have an epiphany but I managed to realize something.
-Graham P
So Graham, I have a question for you; do you believe it's better the way the school system is in Germany or here?
Just curious ;)
An epiphany i had, was how lucky i have been in my life. I have been given so many opportunities that i am so luck to have experienced. It made me appreciate my life.
The Knower Autobiography allowed me to really examine myself and the personal biases that reflect my experiences. After answering the questions, I feel that my exploration of knowledge can be built on a stronger foundation since I am now aware of the biases and faults of my current knowledge.
While writing my personal profile, I came to realize that my creativity and artistic views influence much more of my life that I previously thought. I rely on beauty, color, and passion, like that which is present in so many pieces of art. Not only do I build so much of my life around creating my own art, but I also find myself incredibly influenced by the beauty other people build around themselves.
My epiphany was in understanding how I think. I think the way I do largely because of my parents. My father is a Speech/Communication professor, and my mother was an English major. Those of you who have read Orwell's 1984 should recall "Newspeak," a burgeoning form of thought control that changes the meaning of words themselves. In a similar sense, the way my parents have taught me to communicate has dictated how I think. So, I'm left with the question, how do others think (cognitively, not in a sense of opinion) differently from me?
I must admit that my epiphany was realizing how much I like to talk about myself and my opinions. In society, people who talk about themselves all the time are considered self-centered or egocentric, and maybe justifiably, but it is really nice every once and a while to sit down and write or talk about yourself.
I found out that I enjoy challenging my thoughts and beliefs, but I am not as fond of figuring out why I think the way I do. It's not that I don't like what I found, but that I don't know how to put my thoughts into words.
Before sitting down to write my Knower Profile, I had never thought of how much my personal background and beliefs shape my opinions and viewpoints. I think that as open minded as one may think they are or want to be, it is impossible to set aside one's inner biasses and beliefs. Is it even possible to be truly open minded?
I didn't really have an epiphany doing the assignment, but something that I realized is what goes into my life to make me who I am and what influences my beliefs and how many people are included in that circle of influence.
Good Lord how sexist am I? Well I can answer that: very. While writing the biography, I started ranting and busting out these tires old stereotypes about women. I guess it is because I am male, and already built with such prejudices. I mean, is there chauvinism without sexism?
I don't think I really considered how much experience and family influence my knowledge. Growing up as a kid, my parents taught me certain skills and various things that I still have with me today. I believe that everyone should take personal responsibilities, and I now know that is probably because I always had to clean up after myself, do chores, etc. Also, my brother has affected who I am. He made me into a competitive person, always striving to be better. He taught me about how life is not fair, either because he would get his way because he was older, or I would get my way because my parents had more sypathy for me being the little sister. Some of the things that I thought I knew because of instict, I really learned growing up with my family and experiencing life.
Something I realized was that individuals are somewhat(I'm not saying absolutely!) products of their environment because each individual is shaped by the billions of different factors of his/her lifestyle.
I didn't really have an epiphany when I was writing my autobiography or since then. I had thought about most of those questions after my surgery in Jan. because when you are in bed for almost 2 weeks and all you have is your head and painkillers you think about these things.
Something that I realized about myself while writing my Knower Autobiography was that I am very much an optimist. I don't think that being optimistic is bad, but there is a point where trying only to see the good can really hinder a person's rationality and ability to look at something logically.
i realized that i like to prove things so that they fit my idea of what something should be like. i focus on the details instead of the big picture, somehow convincing myself that since those small deatils support what i think is right, then i must be right...i hope TOK will help me change that :)
I realized that even though I try very hard to justify my beliefs, there are many that I haven't really thought of how to justify. Even with the beliefs I justify, it is sometimes difficult to catergorize how I do so. I also realized that I use logic, authority, and experience to justify most of my beliefs.
so, like most of these people, i did not have an epiphany either. but i also agree that it was an interesting assignment and got me thinking about myself, which was good because someone said something about high school being a time to 'find yourself' which i have not yet been able to do.
so hopefully i will be able to 'find' myself during/after this class.
I completely agree with Pearl. People really are products of thier environment. I mean, genetics come into play as well, but I think that so much of it depends on how you're raised, what way you grew up. Why I wrote my bio, I realized that I really need to be able to do things to learn them. Reading doesn't always do it for me. I need to be able to experiance something to believe that I really know it. I struggle with just being told something, I have a hard time believing it if I haven't seen or experianced it myself. That doesn't mean that I don't believe it when I'm told, it just means that I'm desperate to discover it for myself then.
Honestly, I didn't have a big epiphany, where a light bulb goes off in my head. Probably, because, I had experienced the TOK pupils. They had already questioned my ideals, asked me if I really know what I know. It was almost a crash course in TOK.
Wouldn't that be fun? (Thinking out loud)
It also helped that in my family, you are rarely right, since everyone insists that they are right. I just got used to my own faults and limitations in knowledge.
Hey, this is my shortest comment yet.
As I was writing the personal profile, I realized that there are a lot of different factors that I had never thought about having an affect on my knowledge, and my outlook on that knowledge. For example, I didn't really stop to think that my gender and my region of living (rural) would have much to do with my opinions on issues, but when it was brought to my attention in the survey, it opened up a wider range of ideas as far as what affects what I know. It was one of those moments, as Mrs. King was talking about in class, where I realized how much I don't know.
Something that I realized when completing the Knower activity is that I have always believed in is that sports and physical activity is much more rewarding than any mental one. I was brought up with an older brother who centered his life around sports. So therefore, I have always thought that was the path I should take. I love sports, but perhaps later in life I could reach for a different stage in life? I can relate this belief to an approach to learning. I have found out that playing sports can teach you alot of important life lessons, but I have come to a conclusion (Losing to Rocky tonite kind of gave me the idea) that I need to start looking for lessons in life off the sports field, and in a book or mental activity.
I may have had a little bit of an epiphany when writing my Knower Autobiography. Over the summer, I visited some colleges and interviewed with some counselors at those schools. They always asked me “How have you developed throughout high school?” My normal response was “I’ve become less of a shy person, and I am now more confident in speaking my thoughts out loud.”
After I did the Knower Autobiography, the question “how my age affected how I know” pulled me up short. Because I am in my senior year in high school, I realized how confident I am in my position right now. After all, I have been in this same environment for 3 years.
Thinking about it, I question if a change in my environment will place me back at square one again with my shyness.
As I wrote my Knower Autobiography, I looked deeply into my values. I base the qualities I consider important off of my personal experiences and my own morals. I realized that my values have changed vastly, even over the summer, because of how my experiences have changed. The books I have read and the places I have been are included in my experiences and they have made a large impact on me and have changed my way of thought.
I suppose the epiphany I had in completing the Knower Autobiography assignment is really how much my beliefs and ideas come from faith. As a muslim, which many people know, we follow strict ideals and codes that I very much adhere to. Simultaneously, these ideas define much of who I am and what I stand for. Also, having this faith allows me to make decisions merely on faith and intuition rather than the things around me. I don't know, based on what I have learned on proper and personal justifications, I've found that I rely on my religious beliefs to guide me in the right direction. It's interesting, I thought the assignment was one of those lame and inevitably boring surveys that I would abhor. However, it made me think of what I fall back on to justify my truths and beliefs and also helped me learn more about how I gather knowledge.
I have to say...
~I agree with klneff... PROPS to BWAY_GUY for inspiring such controversial debate. I thought your statements were mildly vague and unexplained, so perhaps we interpreted it wrongly. Do you think you could clarify?
~Spencer, I love how polite and sweet you are in apologizing for not signing your entry.
~Elliot, YOU GREW UP IN TAIWAN AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!
BACK ON TRACK...
As I was writing my Knower Autobiography, I realized that my upbringing has been a lot of very contradicting ideas. Being the child of first generation immigrants, it has been difficult to learn how to pull certain aspects and ideas from the traditions and values of my heritage and culture as well as combining these with the open mindedness and freedom of the American way of thinking.
I believe that life is about compromise and as I compromise some typical freedoms given to many other teenagers, my parents also compromise certain expectations of me pertaining to grades, extracurriculars, and my social life.
Because of this constant give and take relationship and conflict, I have never gotten along particularly well with my parents. It took a special friend of mine to point out everything they gave up to provide happiness for me. He made choices to do things that a friend should not have made and put our friendship at risk to save my relationship with my parents. Yet, because of him, I have just recently begun to attempt to forgive and understand the actions and choices of my parents, and in turn, realize that it takes an incredible amount of faith in a friendship to overstep those boundaries in hopes of mending such a crucial relationship in my life.
I am trying harder to see situations from my parents' point of view, and in turn forsake the selfish child that used to push the revolving doors just to feel it push back.
THANK YOU... "L.J.M."
As I wrote my knower autobiography, I was able to delve into the intricacies of my own self. Taking what I have already learned in class (by mostly just observing and listening to other people's points), I found that I could access a new area of my mind that could allow to decide if something pertaining to knowledge could be justified. That was an epiphany that I had while writing my autobiography. Also, I discovered how connected everything is to knowledge. I had never thought of the fact that my gender or where I grew up could have an significant impact on what I know. But now I realize that it does.
Since completing my knower profile and studying the justifications of knowledge that we were given in class, I have realized how little justification I have for my spiritual beliefs. I would not call myself an atheist, but I do not believe in any interpretation of god that I have yet been shown. My views often change, shifting from atheism to a more structured belief system, and it is interesting to me to see how flimsy my explanations are for these views. I would like to say that most of my justifications involve intuition and a little bit of logic, but even those connections are somewhat unfounded and stretched.
when I was writing my knower autobiography I didn't so much have an epiphany, but I did enjoy having to put into words different information about myself, which I found alot more difficult than I thought it would have been. Since going over all the justifications for beliefs, I realized that I probably didnt properly justified what I believe, and now I'm starting to think about that some more.
While writing, I began to realize how easily I’m influenced. I had a friend who used to continually drop atheist undertones and crack jokes about religious institutions. Looking back on that experience, I now realize that I was starting to acquire his same beliefs about religion. After hanging around him for a period of time, his same words were coming out of my mouth.
I'm not sure that I had an epiphany while writing my Knower Autobiography, but that was mainly because I already had all the answers to the questions. I enjoy thinking about reflection topics like the prompts I received to write about, and hence I already knew how to respond. I do, however, enjoy sharing my views with others, so the Autobiography was a really good opportunity for me....I'm curious what other people will think about my views.
Woah guys, this is whack. My parents never tried to make me believe in any religion, they just let me figure it out for myself. The only people who have ever tried to "turn me on" to god were Christian missionaries. And I could not bring myself to think a word they said made any sense. I realized this phenomenon when writing by autobio
While writing my knower autobiography, I didn't exactly have any epiphany, but I realized that a lot of factors affect my knowledge. I realized that my cultural background of living in a different country using a different language has framed a lot of who I am right now. I have another viewpoint to look and judge things from, therefore I guess I am a little more open minded and understanding. Also, while writing, I began to really think about what values and beliefs I have and how they affect what I consider my knowledge.
Even before the assignment, I realized that I thrive in a logical, concrete environment. However, during the assignment I believe that I realized just how much I use logic to justify my ideas. I thought about learning environments where logic was not used as a form for justification to what we were learning and those were the times I've struggled with the concepts. Although I truly believe that I've been adapting to more abstract concepts and that I am able to understand and use these concepts, I still believe that logic will always dominate the way I think and process information as well as express concepts.
I have a question for the people who say they didn't have epiphanies because they already thought about the topics/questions presented in the autobiography: did you really not think of anything new to put?
I've pondered these questions and many other questions about myself for a great amount of time, and I'm continuously coming up with new and deeper answers. I just find it interesting...
I thought about age and how my age and years of experience qualify me(or make me unqualified)to make decisions, to speak of certain things, to believe I know certain things...etc. Who is to say an old man is wiser than his grandson?
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