I want to post on the blog my thoughts for the TOK presentation today on cultural bias, i dont mean to bash any of it because it was very entertaining however i was thinking about it a few hours later and this is what i came up with
The presentation showed that each cultural group will show somewhat of a bias towards a particular way of knowing, area of knowledge etc.....however the blatant stereotypes that supposedly represented each contestants culture i thought were borderline racist...and not very good at showing a "cultural bias" For example, Sarah and Keanes characters were both black, yet sarahs character was OF COURSE pregnant, had a gold mouthpiece and did not speak with correct grammar, and keanes character only liked basketball and didnt care much for anything else, namely school. I wasnt sure if they accurately portrayed what black culture not only represents, but what their bias' would be, since they portrayed stereotypes we see at NC everyday. I believe that if you were to present a project on cultural bias it would be incredibly difficult because of that little thing called personal perspective. I believe that cultural bias occurs when people move beyond their own cultural group into another with a certain idea or knowledge that does not necessarily match up with the conventions of that cultural group. However, isnt my idea, your idea, and the group who presented today ideas on what cultural bias is...susceptible to cultural bias, in fact, any "universal" idea of what cultural bias is, is suspectible to cultural bias... i think that the group today could not move beyond their OWN cultural bias and establish what the cultural bias would be for another cultural group and thats why blatant stereotypes were shown
Hopefully someone can enlighten me or give their own opinion, although that probably wont happen because no one reads the previous post they just post their own thought like im doing now, so Mr. Perkins since your the only one who WILL read this, thank you very much, and again to everyone i dont mean to target this presentation, this was just something i thought about afterwards....
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"Political Ethics and Moral Ambiguity: The Moral Agency of Nation States" Monday, October 3, 7:00 p.m. in the Performance Classroom of North Central High School
Socrates
A blog for Theory of Knowledge students at North Central High School
2011 Episteme Lecture
"Political Ethics and Moral Ambiguity: The Moral Agency of Nation States" Monday, October 3, 7:00 p.m. in the Performance Classroom of North Central High School
2011 Episteme Lecturer -- Dr. Carlton Waterhouse
The Episteme Lectures Renewed!
Thanks to a generous grant from the Washington Township Schools Foundation, The Episteme Lectures have additional funding for another three years! While we continue to need further financial support to expand the level of excellence for which the lectures are known (interested donors should contact Steve Perkins at sperkins@msdwt.k12.in.us or 317.259.5301, x5526), we are deeply grateful to the WTS Foundation for its previous and continued support of this unique educational opportunity. Please visit us at www.epistemelecture.org.
Former TOK Students Speak Out
Today, when I went to open my links to my required reading for my Intro to International Studies, I laughed out loud as I read the title of the second article we had to read:
Epistemology: How You Know What You Know.
Something tells me I am already very well prepared for this course thanks to two years of thinking in one class. I hope all is well with you and your classes at North Central and thanks again for two years of one of the best classes I ever took. Alley Murphy
I'm finishing the last 20 pages of the marathon that is Will Durant's Story of Philosophy. You should recommend its 400 dense (both in words and concepts per square inch) pages of 1920's ornate and pristine prose to any exceptional student; if they start now, it would supplement their ToK experience and undoubtedly imbue them with remarkable writing ability. Although I realize that ToK isn't a philosophical survey course, I can't help but see my youth as one of privation for lack of Kant. Spending one class surveying Kant would not only reveal to ToKers the joys of philosophy and the inevitable narrowness of their perspective, it would also provide some support against the arrogant materialists. Benson Tucker, Brown University
A quote by Rousseau was brought up in my Intro to Itnl. Studies class, and it reminded me greatly of TOK. Fred Hendricks III, Indiana University
As I was sitting in Mexico, waiting for the VBS my youth group was running to end, I noticed the hue of the sky. It indicated a nearing sunset; thus, it was time to go. I got up only to find it was in fact not time to go but at least half an hour early. I took off my sunglasses. They were spotless, unscratched. They gave me a perfectly accurate view of the world save for tint, and that exception influenced my actions greatly. It got me to thinking what other slight misperceptions of the world could have caused me and others to do. It got me talking about perception back at my hotel room. It got the little TOK voice in my head whirring.
Just thought you should know as you begin to plant that questioning seed inside the minds of your new class that your last crop was successful, that even in another country there is no place for your students to run or hide and that even the quiet ones will fall. Kim Hotchkiss, St. Olaf College
Tell all your IB students TOK is the one thing from IB that you will most definitely use in college! I certainly have and I am so happy I was exposed to something like TOK before college. Marissa Hampton, University of California-Irvine
TOK is the best class you can take in high school. And, being able to write critically off the top of your head is pretty much what your have to do on all your non-math/science exams. Plus, TOK is generally a heck of a lot of fun. If you can make it through the beginning of junior year, you're golden. I really do appreciate what TOK has done for me. Anna Boch, Harvard University
I'm double majoring in political science and criminal justice. I've taken some philosophy classes and in depth political analysis classes already and basically owned them. TOK really gave me a crazy perspective when analyzing texts and debating them. I found that I was much much much more prepared than the majority of the students. Keane Mossman, Indiana University
A couple of years ago I asked a large group of [Katie's] friends if they felt prepared for college and what class at NC helped them the most. This was a group of kids who were at Harvard and Stanford and everywhere in between. They said without a doubt they were better prepared than 99% of other students. They also agreed that the best class by far was TOK because it really taught them to think and question. Sara Lootens, mother of Katie Lootens, Duke University
Epistemology: How You Know What You Know.
Something tells me I am already very well prepared for this course thanks to two years of thinking in one class. I hope all is well with you and your classes at North Central and thanks again for two years of one of the best classes I ever took. Alley Murphy
I'm finishing the last 20 pages of the marathon that is Will Durant's Story of Philosophy. You should recommend its 400 dense (both in words and concepts per square inch) pages of 1920's ornate and pristine prose to any exceptional student; if they start now, it would supplement their ToK experience and undoubtedly imbue them with remarkable writing ability. Although I realize that ToK isn't a philosophical survey course, I can't help but see my youth as one of privation for lack of Kant. Spending one class surveying Kant would not only reveal to ToKers the joys of philosophy and the inevitable narrowness of their perspective, it would also provide some support against the arrogant materialists. Benson Tucker, Brown University
A quote by Rousseau was brought up in my Intro to Itnl. Studies class, and it reminded me greatly of TOK. Fred Hendricks III, Indiana University
As I was sitting in Mexico, waiting for the VBS my youth group was running to end, I noticed the hue of the sky. It indicated a nearing sunset; thus, it was time to go. I got up only to find it was in fact not time to go but at least half an hour early. I took off my sunglasses. They were spotless, unscratched. They gave me a perfectly accurate view of the world save for tint, and that exception influenced my actions greatly. It got me to thinking what other slight misperceptions of the world could have caused me and others to do. It got me talking about perception back at my hotel room. It got the little TOK voice in my head whirring.
Just thought you should know as you begin to plant that questioning seed inside the minds of your new class that your last crop was successful, that even in another country there is no place for your students to run or hide and that even the quiet ones will fall. Kim Hotchkiss, St. Olaf College
Tell all your IB students TOK is the one thing from IB that you will most definitely use in college! I certainly have and I am so happy I was exposed to something like TOK before college. Marissa Hampton, University of California-Irvine
TOK is the best class you can take in high school. And, being able to write critically off the top of your head is pretty much what your have to do on all your non-math/science exams. Plus, TOK is generally a heck of a lot of fun. If you can make it through the beginning of junior year, you're golden. I really do appreciate what TOK has done for me. Anna Boch, Harvard University
I'm double majoring in political science and criminal justice. I've taken some philosophy classes and in depth political analysis classes already and basically owned them. TOK really gave me a crazy perspective when analyzing texts and debating them. I found that I was much much much more prepared than the majority of the students. Keane Mossman, Indiana University
A couple of years ago I asked a large group of [Katie's] friends if they felt prepared for college and what class at NC helped them the most. This was a group of kids who were at Harvard and Stanford and everywhere in between. They said without a doubt they were better prepared than 99% of other students. They also agreed that the best class by far was TOK because it really taught them to think and question. Sara Lootens, mother of Katie Lootens, Duke University
Links of Interest
Socrates
Former Students
Former TOK students who remember something wonderfully witty or stunningly profound that either they or someone else wrote, may recover such tidbits of wisdom by emailing Mr. Perkins at sperkins@msdwt.k12.in.us.
from Plato's Apology
Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy.
2 comments:
Your insight on today's presentation is interesting.
I agree that we are all susceptible to our own cultural biases. The members of your group in the Jeopardy skit interpreted a cultural bias specific to a culture that was different from their own. However, there are some problems with this way of presenting cultural biases because your group was naturally influenced by the cultural biases of your own backgrounds and experiences. Although very entertaining to us, I am sure that some elements of the script would not have gone over nearly as well if you were to have repeated your presentation outside of our predominately white IB class.
It is very difficult to realistically present different individual cultural biases in our world because people have a natural tendency to interpret different biases through their own cultural lenses. Perhaps if we lived in a homogenized world then we could eliminate this obstacle. But this is unrealistic and unappealing. There wouldn't be any different cultural biases to point out -- because we would all see things the same way!
Lillian, this problem of knowledge is challenging now that I look at it this way because we really cannot present a cultural bias without having some interference from another. But this topic fits quite nicely in TOK; an unclear idea that can be viewed several different ways.
Thanks for the laughs. Miles
I see a parallel in these comments to a famous component of quantum theory...that a you cannot make an observation of a system without affecting that system. The comments from the two posts I am reading are right on track. Those presenting biases had biases of their own regarding those biases.
The problem is that you get into an infinite regression. Those commenting on the biases of those who presented biases have biases themselves, both about the biases presented and about those presenting them.
Since such a regression never ends, where do you draw the line? How can you talk about biases, if not in an unbiased way, at least in ways that can help lead to understanding?
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