Friday, May 7, 2010

The Science and Humanities of... Tables?

The best way I can describe my feelings towards this class are analytically. My analogy consists of the class and the tables in the class room. In the beginning of the year, the tables were all in rows, overflowing with people, sort of like everyone in the class room; they came with pretty structered, overflowing ideas of how they felt about certain... things for lack of better word. The tables stayed like this for a couple of classes, until we formed our working groups. The circles we formed allowed us to share and exchange our beliefs, ideas, and reflections with other people, in a circulation, referencing our readings. The "stuff" we would learn in class would circulate from one person to another, slowly changing minds and ideas. Then at the end of class, we would put the tables back together, in some almost normal formation. As we left, we tried to get a grip on our thoughts, putting together with what we've learned in some new formation. This would repeatedly happen everyday, for a whole semester. Then as we sat in class on the last day talking about uncertainties and certainties, we for the last time, put the tables back in a formation very different than the way in which they started on the first day. We left the classroom for the last time with new views, opinions, beliefs, morals, thoughts etc. Some of us have no idea what any of it means, yet. Some of us are pissed that we are now uncertain. Some of us still have the same ideas that have only be reinforced. What ever the case, we have a new foundation, understanding, realization about the world we live in. Our tables are all holding different items, but they are holding them with a strong foundation built by each individual, thanks to this class.

1 comment:

  1. I never thought about this class in that way, but I think what you say is completely true! The tables were organized in a completely cartesian way and when we started rearranging the tables, we began shaking our cartesian foundation. You found a great metaphor for this class!

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