Session 2 - March 7 afternoon (dube: early east asia, chinese philosophy)

[Hilda Dixon]

For my Lesson plan unit, I was planning to use SymbolStixPrime symbols. I want also use similar lessons like the ones  Unique Leaning Systems implement, too.  Students with disabilities benefit when lessons provide multimodal opportunies such as visual, and hands on experiences.

[Chad Espinoza]

The origin story of Japan is incredibly interesting, as it is filled with turmoil, conflict, and chaos. Personally, I have always found origin stories interesting, since they provide tremendous insight into the current character of a particular culture and give plenty of insight into the future of that culture. Regarding Japan, the nation was birthed from chaos and conflict, and neither seem to subside until central power was established tying the islands together. Perhaps to combat that country’s predilection towards chaos, Japan is known as a culture of order. However, that order now seems to have become a form of oppression for the youth. This is made evident by the dangerously low birth rates. The younger generations of Japan simply are disengaging from the expectations of the culture. It seems that Japan has always struggled to find balance and is constantly trying to subdue a tendency towards conflict.

[Alma Ochoa]

Ester, I’m very analytical and linear in my way of thinking, hence being a math teacher.  I always loved math, it seems to be the only subject that made sense and it was very black and white; you either get the answer right or wrong.  I always had difficulties with Language Arts and History.  I always felt everything was up for interpretation and depending on your back ground and experiences that really dictated the meaning one got from whatever was being read.  Growing up my dad would tell us stories and my mom would often say, “why don’t you tell them about such and such a time” and he would say, “no, that was not a victory for me let the other person tell that story.”  So it is almost certain that more often than not things are omitted and often embellished because there is always two sides to every story and history is always written from a person’s perspective.  So I am definitely with you!  I wish more leaders and even more journalist would simply be truthful and report the facts.     

[Alma Ochoa]

 

I enjoyed leaning about the different Chinese Philosophies.  I really like the student handouts towards the end of the readings.  I can read about the different Chinese Philosophies with my students and then have them use the 'Wrestling with Big Questions' handouts to take a pole of students way of thinking in my two geometry classes.  With this data they can then make a box and whisker plot as well as a Two-Way Dot plot of the gathered data.  I think it would be interesting to see if students differ in their philosophy when it comes to wrestling with answering the four big questions : )  

[clay dube]

Once students understand core ideas from the four schools, one could ask them which might be more useful in dealing with particular challenges. Examples come up in the seminar's discussion of the Qin/Han iron and salt debates. But also, which of the philosophies will emphasize infrastructure building? What curriculum priorities will the schools have? -- we'll discuss this in the debate on Saturday morning, 3/28. Please be sure to let Catherine know that you plan to participate (9-11 Saturday morning). Thanks.

[clay dube]

Alma's comments remind me how we organize our own story. That is evident in what is included in résumés, of course, but also in what we share with children and friends. It may be, however, that our failures may truly help others understand. Great post -- please keep this discussion going. Here and with your students.

[clay dube]

Elizabeth's right about the need to adapt what we do for your students. How can we do this? Thinking about narrowing focus, reworking texts for reading or discussion level -- this is all vital. But that's where your creativity and experience pays off. Sharing those ideas here helps us all expand our sense of what's possible. Thanks!

[clay dube]

Eclecticism in practice is in evidence in ancient and contemporary China -- and in our own lives. Thinking about this shows our innate flexibility. We need to appreciate that pragmatism. Please explain a bit more about SymbolStixPrime symbols - I may not be the only person who isn't familiar with this term/approach.

[clay dube]

I agree with Chad about the utility of studying origin stories. Who gets to determine these? Who perpetuates these stories? Why are they retold?

[Hilda Dixon]

I think that humanity is always concerned about the future because sometimes the future may be perceived scary. In the same token, regarding what is to be human, we have not evolved that much as humanity in the last millenniums. For instance, we are concerned about the implications of this pandemic regarding society, economy and job stability. Societies like the Chinese tried to find ways to get answers. For the Chinese people, the ritual of the oracle bones was their means to communicate with their ancestors to find answers to their concerns such as should be moving armies, giving birth, weather(rain), harvest.  As in past Chinese people posed fundamental questions that are still prevalent in our current society such as, “ What is the source of chaos?” Should we more hyper individualistic, favor familyism, or materialism? What are the characteristics of a ruthless leader? It is so interesting that we nowadays we ask ourselves the same questions regarding our leaders of the world. Who should be our rulers be heaven mandated or virtuous leaders? It will be interesting if the students can generalize some of the philosophical fundamental questions to other societies such as ours to determine how in many ways we are the same and apart.

[Brigid Schmidt]

I was thinking of a similar idea to yours: having my students choose who they are from the time period and write a historical narrative. This is a similar lesson to what my 6th graders did for the Silk Road project. I gave them all a name and description of who they were and they had to write at least 4 journal entries about what life was like as they went on their journey traveling the Silk Road. They had to describe who they encountered, what they saw, the geography, weather, and hardships they went through. Having the students view these slides and giving them the designation of a ruler, peasant, or an artisan and then have them write about their life and the importance of the artifacts related to their character would really help them explore what life might have been like for the people of the time. Not only would they be learning about the culture, class system, and time period, but they would be working on narratives and creative writing. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

I have been diligently grading my 6th grade students' Silk Road Journals. This was a cross curricular assignment, so I was not in their history class as they were learning everything about the Silk Road and the time period. Being new to the 6th grade curriculum in general, I often had to ask my partner teacher more about it. After listening and reading these Chinese philosophies, I have gained a much better understanding. I am impressed that so many of my students wrote that they met people who were Buddhist and taught them about their religion (giving examples.) Others wrote that they shared their Chinese philosophies with people from other regions. They went in-depth explaining Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and Legalism. When I began grading I was more focused on the grammar and vocabulary. However, now that the information is more familiar to me, I feel I understand their "journeys" so much more. I am more confident in the comments I write on their journals and am better engaged in their stories and the places they visit. Next year when teaching this, it will be much easier for me to answer their questions and I am now looking forward to it, rather than being a bit confused. I am excited to keep learning more. 

[Cynthia Stults]

I really like your idea of utilizing the various philosophies into clasroom norms and character education. I had a similar idea to use this at the beginning of the year when we create our Class Constitution/Vision Statement/Mission Statement, it could give the students alternative ideologies to draw inspiration from, and help them decide if they want a classroom dictated by lots of rules and consequences, or use a hands off approach. 

 

To get really interesting, the class could operate according to the precepts of a particular philosophy and for a day/week each group operates according to the precepts of their philosophy. Students could predict which philosophy would prove most successful for the class, and then students could analyze what their experience was by the end of the day/week. After experiencing a clasroom run by each philosophy, students would likely have a greater understanding both of how our classroom could be most successful, and which philosophy works best for them as a learner. This could help them identify how they can/should study and work.

[Cynthia Stults]

Alma, I thought it was incredibly interesting that your father thought that he should only share the stories that were a "victory" for him. As we do look at history, the most familiar story is that of the "victor" or group that was in a power position at that time. This is when it becomes important to seek out other accounts from groups who "lost" or were not in the power position. I also do wonder about how human pride affects our reporting/retelling of events. I think that on one hand, humans are prone to exaggeration- it was either an incredible win by heroes, or the defeat was due to a vile, evil, powerful enemy. This could also be a generational concept. I think that older generations put a premium on pride (don't ever let them see you cry- that's a sign of weakness), whereas our millenial "snowflakes" are more open to expressing both positive and negative emotions. I sometimes view social media as our current primary source documents, and typically our accounts only share the best parts of ourselves, and when we share struggles, or the negative things we experience, people are uncomfortable or quick to consider it TMI, that shouldn't be shared with others. I think we have to teach students to look beyond the surface of what was created for public consumption, and look at all of the circumstances, and what "hidden" effects those events and circumstances could have.

[Cynthia Stults]

Chad, I really appreciate you making connections between what we are learning about ancient civilizations with modern issues. So often, students wonder why they have to learn about ancient civilizations, and many feel that if it happened so long ago, it has no bearing on the present. I feel that if we can make the connections, like you have, and help students make them as well, then they will hopefully begin to see how important it is to understand the past, and then see if we as a society have truly progressed beyond any of their mistakes. If not, then we need to act as agents of change in order to keep the past from repeating itself. The presentations about the plight of the uighurs in China not only resurrects negative actions from World War II, but those of conquering parties from more ancient times. 

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