connections between Locke and Sherlock Holmes

In the Phillips article it states “The mind (or "the understanding") is described in Locke's writings in very passive terms--the mind is a receptacle (an empty cabinet, a wax tablet, a piece of blotting paper) for storing whatever ideas come from experience.” This caught my eye having recently read the Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in which the detective Sherlock Holmes states "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." The connection was pretty immediate do the time periods line up for Doyle to have been influenced by Locke?

(CR) actor vs. spectator

The following quotes from the article on constructivism by D.C. Phillips were interestingt ome for reasons i'll explain later:

"When one applies constructivism to the issue of teaching, one must reject the assumption that one can simply pass on information to a set of learners and expect that understanding will result. Communication is a far more complex process than this. When teaching concepts, as a form of communication, the teacher must form an adequate model of the student's ways of viewing an idea and s/he then must assist the student in restructuring those views to be more adequate from the student's and from the teacher's perspective. Constructivism not only emphasizes the essential role of the constructive process, it also allows one to emphasize that we are at least partially able to be aware of those constructions and then to modify them through our conscious reflection on that constructive process."(Confrey, 1990, p. 109)

"Starting from the constructivist position that the knower is an "actor" rather than a "spectator," Dewey staunchly advocated the use of activity methods in the
schoolroom--for students are potential knowers, yet traditional schooling forces students into the mold of passive receptacles waiting to have information instilled, instead of allowing them to move about, discuss, experiment, work on communal projects, pursue research outdoors in the
fields and indoors in the library and laboratory, and so forth."

These quotes interested me because they seem to relate to my experience going to a charter school from 7th-12th grade. The quotes, specifically the second one, remind me strongly of how the classrooms at Parker functioned. At Parker we more often than not were 'actors' engaging in activities and discussions instead of sitting and listening to the teacher lecture on any given subject. I always enjoyed this way of learning. I'm a hands-on learner so i always enjoyed doing activities and discussions and being the 'actor' rather than a 'spectator'. It was always more engaging an I alwayas thought i learned more and remembered better when we worked actively instead of passively.

Thus begins a new semester

Welcome to the reality of a new semester!. This blog previously devoted to Intro to Honors last semester will now serve for Constructing Reality this semester.
I look forward to learning about different views of reality in our and other cultures. I hope that this class is as interesting as last semester was.

views on zoos

i have really enjoyed the discussions that the class has had surroundsing the article about zoos and pornography. personally i don't think that zoos are pornographic but i do agree that they are not the ideal way to treat and interact with animals. i hope that in the future humans can come up with a better way for humans to interact with animals without them being contained in too small cages where they are not truly comfortable. i think that the point that zoos are not as educational as some might say is valid, because while there are those plaques all over with information on the animals the percentage of people who actually read them is probably smaller than expected. personally i like parts where people get in a truck or somthing similar because the animals are less contained (at least seemingly). the experience is realer because the animals can be viewed from afar or from closer up depending on where the animals want to be. i hope that we can improve upon this idea in the future. or, better yet humans should stop destroying the animals natural habitat so they can live in the wild with some way of seeing them devised so that we'll be safe but still getting a chance to view and admire them.

appreciation

i would just like to muse on the fact that we never truly appreciate something or someone till they are taken away from us for some period of time. my main example being high school friends. it was driven home to be over this past break that it had really been about 4 months since i had seen many of the people i was able to hang out with over break and i had really missed all their colorful personalities mixing with each others and my own basically everyday of my life for the past 6 years in high school. some have moved on to college alongside me and some are just beginning that process but they are all of great value to me and i did miss them but it was only when i was able to interact with them again over break that i really appreciated how much joy they all bring into my life. they make me laugh until my sides hurt and i feel very comfortable among them knowing i am loved in return for my own colorful personality which is who i am. this also applies within my family it was so great to see my parents and siblings even though i had seen most of them much more recently, still i had missed them. i appreciated greatly the atmosphere of safety and love that enveloped my whole break. we miss people we love and realize only when we get to spend time with them how much we truly did miss them.

Honors

i just wanted to mention how interesting i found the discussion in class today about what makes an honors student. the fact that many of the different things we said related to each other was not surprising and infact made alot of sense because many of the characteristics are commonly found together with many of the other ones we noted. i wanted to add that i think honors students need to be adventurous which kind of related to some of those mentioned but was not even mentioned on its own. honors students need to be willing to look at things that might not normally be looked at and to discuss them rationally and critically. they must be willing to think outside the box on issues which have been long debated, maybe they will see somthing new that has not been thought of before. over all i think we did a pretty good job of describing what hte ideal qualities of an honors student are.

a side note being i also enjoyed Professor Sillimans sense of humor and straighforward answers to the classes questions. i'm pleased that i got to interact with him some as i'm going to be taking a course with him next semester and i had never met him.

Negative imagery

today in class we watched most of a movie called faces of the enemy. i just wanted to point out a few things that i thought very interesting.

• The murderer was talking about how the country did not get the way it was without someone working toward it. does anyone think that is one of the parts which relates to the current day?
• the notion of all the artists studying at the same school of art makes some sense in that they are all thinking along the same lines of dehumanizing the enemy. plus they all see each others images and are probably affected by them in terms of their art.
• the idea that the images make it really hard to pull back and try for peace makes sense because each side by that point veiws the other by the images they have produced and not as humans.

these are just a few things i wanted to comment on that the movie mentions.