Reflecting on our Evolution

Towards Day 26 of Evolving Systems course

I. end-of-semester evaluations

 

II. concrete example of the power of the unconscious
(and the difficulty of correcting it)--> on reading my book cover:
what's the title??

III. coursekeeping
* fun papers about toilet habits, boyfriends' "slips of the tongue,"
dreams, educational practices...

last round of conferences tomorrow morning:
Bingqing, Tiannan, Sarah, Kristen, Summer;
then Betrice on Thursday afternoon

* sign up for your performance groups
(performances by both groups to be held in the
English House Lecture Hall, 11:30-1 on Thursday)

* questions about your portfolios?

IV. do a "brain drain" on evolution:
write down the first 3 words that come to mind

V. your on-line reflections about our semester's evolution:
what is the story we are telling (individually, collectively) about this course?

(then let's try to answer King's question, @ the end of Chapter I of The Truth
about Stories: having heard this story, how will you live your life differently??)

VI. returning to The Truth about Stories:
how does our original text look to you now,
through the lens of the semester's conversation?

Chapter 1: "You'll Never Believe What Happened"
p. 9: they (family stories) control our lives
p. 10: w/in creation stories are relationships that help to define
the nature of the universe and how cultures understand the world
p. 22: two creation stories, and two different strategies for telling them-->
suggesting different values: exuberance vs. authority/veracity;
cooperation vs. hierarchy; balance vs. competition
p. 26: Do the stories reflect the world as it truly is,
or did we simply start off with the wrong story?
p. 27: what kind of world might we have created w/ a story about a flawed,
understanding, sympathetic deity who needed advice and accepted help?
p. 29: how live your life differently, having heard this story??

Afterwords: Private Stories
Want a different ethic? Tell a different story...
"I find it easier to tell myself the story of my failure as a friend...
than to have to live the story of making the sustained effort to help..."
[telling vs. living a story? telling a story in order not to change??]

VI. Another possible "conclusion":
Sir Ken Robinson's animated production of Changing Education Paradigms....