Category Archives: edushare

Remembering, Forgetting and Getting Confused

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Never has a title of a lecture been so relevant to me!

Philosophy is a subject that I had only slightly touched on at high school – having studied Higher Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies I had a very, very basic understanding of Philosophy. So going into our philosophy lectures was like starting with a blank canvas, which didn’t really bother me. However, I don’t think my mind was made for such deep thinking. I really liked John’s lecture styles and the laughs he gave us, but I have never been so confused! The big questions of philosophy literally blew my mind and I struggled to comprehend the meaning of it all. So, when John emailed us the TDT I may have panicked slightly – how can I commentate on something that I don’t understand? I decided the best thing to do was to look over the slides of the lecture I found most interesting and re-read the notes I had taken during that lecture. Still confused, I watched a video ( thanks to Emma!!!)  that explained it again in a slightly different way and I think I have grasped it now. So bare with me whilst I (attempt) to commentate on Plato’s Theory of the Forms:

I found the lecture Remembering, Forgetting and Getting Confused very interesting. I had never thought about the reason how I know a chair was a chair or an apple was an apple – it seemed like a natural thing that I have always known. It was Plato and his Theory of the Forms that made me think. Firstly, Plato believed that there are two worlds: the material world ( the world we live in) and the real world. The material world is constantly changing and we rely on our senses to understand what is going on, whereas in the real world (which is outside the one we live in) is unchanging, eternal and is a world of ideas. In the real world there are perfect forms of the things that we know on earth – on earth they are just a poor imitation.

So if we take apples, for example (John used chairs but for some reason I found apples – used in the video- easier to understand). All apples share an underlying apple-ness – for Plato this would be regarded as the true form of the apple. There is one true form of apples and that one form, forms the many. The form of an apple is unchanging and eternal but apples themselves are simply appearances of true form, that’s why they change and become imperfect (I.e. they rot.) In the material world there is no such thing as a perfect apple just imperfect reflections of the form of apples. Us human beings can recognise the form of apples as we are born with a dim recollection of them from prior existence in the real world. We can recognise apples because we recognise the apple-ness ( the eternal, unchanging form). This is the same for chairs.

Plato also believed that there is an inner part of us – known as the soul – that doesn’t change and is eternal. Before it was “tied” down with a body it was connected with the real world of the forms. This is the reason we understand forms because we have been in contact with them through our soul in the world of the forms. This is why when we see objects we know what they are in the physical world.

I though this was very interesting as it explains why we, in a sense, automatically know what objects are. I think this might be part of the reason we often have moments where we recognise something but don’t know where from – possibly because we have seen the true form of it in the real world. I think this is a difficult topic because it opens up lots of different questions, such as: Is there such thing as a soul? Are actions like coughing and sneezing “remembered” and undertaken automatically due to our genetic composition? Do we only know what an apple is or what a chair is because of people around us – being taught from our parents what things are from an early age and following the actions of other people (for example seeing people sit on chairs so we do that too because it seems as if it is the “normal” thing to do)? Are we influenced to do things and think things from those around us?

Philosophy isn’t really any less confusing for me but I just don’t think my mind can handle the big, open questions it presents.

Gender: Did it affect me?

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I spent my time at Primary school switching from being a ‘girly’ girl to being heavily involved in sports – back and forth. In Primary 3 I started to play football with the boys. They were happy for me to play and didn’t care about my ability – it didn’t seem as if this was obscure to them and I was really happy to play. I would often play football with them right up until I left Primary school. I remember one lunch time in Primary 3, a playground assistant came up to me and said “Get away from the boys playing football; you’re getting in the way!” I told her that I was involved in this game and she was very shocked, however she let me play with them. Maybe this was one time when my gender affected me?

As I grew older, I started to play with the girls more – nothing unsurprising. We would play games where we would pretend we had babies or create fictional worlds that we would live out at break and lunchtime. Every now and again though, the boys and girls in my class would come together and play games such as Granny (with a tennis ball and a wall) or jungle’s on fire. I personally had the most fun at these times because we all got along and it was like one huge friends group.

Looking back now, I realise there may have been some slight ways in which my gender was taken into account. Like on sports day – they would split the boys and girls up in each class when it was time to do the races. Or even at the start of the day, when the bell would ring we would line up in two separate lines according to our gender. Or what about when the girls got to pack up 5 minutes early because we had been the best behaved that day – had we really been the best behaved? I never realised this when I was at Primary school, it just seemed like the ‘normal’ thing to do.

I honestly do not think that the way in which my gender was taken into account at Primary school affected me nor do I think it has affected the person I have become today. Having a niece and nephew of Primary school age, it was really lovely to hear my nephew say his best friend was a girl in his class and when I attended my niece’s sports day earlier this year it was wonderful to see the class was mixed together at the races, for example the egg and spoon race and one legged race – the boys and girls often paired up in races they needed to be in pairs for. This was a far cry to the sports days I had experienced when I was in Primary school – even if I only left 7 years ago.

Why did I choose teaching?

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Teaching is a profession I have considered since a very young age. I remember creating a year book in Primary 4 and I had stated that my “dream job” was to be a Primary teacher. Throughout the rest of my school education – both Primary and Secondary – teaching has been a profession that has always been at the back of my mind, even when I was more interested in other professions.

 

So why teaching?

Like I have previously stated, I have been interested in teaching for as long as I can remember. My earliest memory of wanting to become a teacher is when I would pretend to be a teacher to an imaginary class either in my bedroom or in the garden. I would be lost in my own little teaching world for hours as I taught the imaginary children – often repeating the fun lessons I had experienced in school that day. Sometimes, after completing my homework, I would double check my work to ensure it was correct and I would take that opportunity to pretend I was marking one of my pupil’s work.

Primary teaching became more of my ideal job due to my Primary 7 teacher. He interacted with the class so well and made the lessons fun – essentially he was on the children’s level. He took interest in our lives and the things we wanted to tell him. He was very approachable and everyone felt comfortable asking for help or needing advice about problems. There was no awkwardness and I also looked forward to going into school the following day. His lessons were very fun and somewhat different to ways we had learned before. One lesson that stands out to me was the time he gave us all a picture and asked us to write a story using the characters or the setting in that picture. It let my imagination run wild as there was no limits – I could write about whatever I wanted as long as I used that picture as a basis for the story. I also remember his enthusiasm for every aspect of education and the way he wanted the best for his pupils. He even introduced a head boy and head girl into my Primary school (I was proudly elected head girl.) So seeing the way he taught and his enthusiasm for all his pupils to be the best they possibly can be, inspired me to become a teacher.

Before I could be accepted onto this course, I spent some time in a Primary school in order to gain some experience in a teaching environment. It made me feel very humble seeing how excited the children would get when I would walk into the class and how much they would appreciate my help. There was nothing better than seeing their faces light up when they finally understood what they were being taught or how excited they were to tell you about the marks they got on their spelling test. That was when I finally knew I had picked the right profession for me.

 

Now I am studying to be a teacher, I’d like to become a teacher who is fun and very interactive with her pupils. Someone who takes the time and compassion for every single member of her class. I want to be the type of teacher that keeps the pupils interested and makes them hungry to discover more about a certain topic. I want my pupils to look forward to coming to school every day and for them to know that no matter the size of the problem I will always be there to help them. I would like to be a teacher that’s only ever strict at the appropriate times. I want my lessons to be fun and exciting so nobody becomes bored when at school and make them enthusiastic to complete their work in school and their homework. I aspire to be the best teacher I possibly can be to help my pupils become the best they possibly can be.

 

 

 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=llSocQj6r5kframeborder%3D0allowfullscreen