For my Forbidden Books course, I read Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut to understand the depth psychology behind independent education and philosophy of the way cultures view life’s meanings. The proposals this novel made regarding the perspectives of life and religion were seen as negative content on many accounts of schools from the late 1960′s through late 1980′s. Deeming the novel “anti-religious and anti-sematic”. This caused the book to be banned, later causing an uproar in modifying the amount of religious influences there is in schools. My main focus by reading this book is:
Use of diversity:
Diversity challenges this monoculture because it shows that each individual who has an intellectual philosophy of life can challenge the logic behind “the absolute truth of the universe”. Where there is none; but is inspired through everyone’s unique perspectives and should not be considered “false nor accurate”, but educational. Because it helps understand how the world really works since the mind’s of people create it to be so.
Challenging monocultures of the mind:
The monoculture I want to challenge is how people view life’s meaning. “What is the meaning behind life, and how do we find it?” through education and self teaching. Religion is often a contradiction of being self-taught about how a person singularly views life and achieves wellness and goals through that experience. Religion has a concrete system that forces people to all think the same way, when in reality it is supposed to be different based on the individual’s education throughout life.
As an assignment for understanding how the content in Slaughterhouse 5 was interpreted, I broke down elements within the novel and proposed “who, what, where, when, why, and how” this book held “dangerous content” as seen by prior debates. This was done in a Powerpoint slideshow:
In this study, I looked at the 10 Communist Commandments show a lot about how systems are set up, especially the way a government regulates its country. In this instance, using WikiLeaks as a website to uncover the various impacts a government has on the population helps us understand the things a government promises but does not commit to. In my study, I researched an affair regarding employment and issues with the protection of rights in the government’s responsibility.
For this milestone, I studied the Christian and Muslim religions and used what I learned about the Bible and the Qur’an to connect the various types of qualities both teachings have. In doing so, I developed a project in which I created a building to symbolize/represent the connection of these various ideas. The resources used to enhance my study were found in a local Chicago art gallery, the SmArt Museum, which I visited on Saturday April 21st, 2012. The art pieces used in the slideshow presentation below where founded as an interpretive study to connect Muslim and Christian teachings to their religious texts. During this Field Experience, I also interviewed my father, James Toland, to get more incite about how these art pieces can be understood/defined. I thought this would be the best way to describe the foundations of the building I designed and express the content I studied for connecting these two beliefs together through Christ and Muhammad.
In this study, the most important values to take away are the ways in which religion influences social and political mentality. I provided a heavy amount of investigation by observing various speeches given by intellectuals, politicians, and extremists to challenge my awareness of this religious spectrum. Faith and practice can be applied in many forms, and by learning of them I can see the variety of different outcomes in which people respond to another’s way of life or beliefs. This also allowed me to see how politics or a country’s law and order are dictated by faith and beliefs. I studied a piece by Plato called The Apology of Socrates; a translated document in which Plato and Socrates explain logic and reason to defend Socrates in his trial for not upholding religious law. This was a resource that allowed me to see how logic and reasoning are allied in debates and speeches in order to conduct thorough points. I then studied various speeches by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Christopher Hitchens, discussion between Imam and a Muslim homosexual, David Cameron and guest speakers in a British talk host show. From these I saw how reasoning was obscured by religious extremism, its influence over people, and atheist analysis of belief. All of this helped me develop my speech to show my research and allow me to express my interpretation of religion philosophically just as one would try to persuade an audience.
My speech pertaining to the logic of belief and its influences on human choice
This video is not public and can only be seen by viewers who have a link.
Aftermath Reflection
Why did you choose your topic?
By choosing to focus on the topic I chose, theology and political power, I was able to study deeper into the building blocks of societies. I was interested to learn about how religion influences major control over the function of countries.
What did you hope to provoke in the listeners/viewers of your speech?
I wanted to provoke a philosophical interpretation life; in turn modifying the extremist practice of religion and using logic to evaluate the true purpose of religion in human welfare. It was important for me to try and redefine the purpose of religious application in order to dictate how common interpretations are causing major flaws in society mentality.
In what ways were you satisfied with your work and performance on this milestone?
I felt confident being able to share my personal ideas and connect it to the message of the lesson. I believe that by sharing philosophical ideas and connecting it to my study of reasoning and speech, I can teach or inspire different ways to look at religion.
What skills do you possess that contributed to your success?
I study various religious texts for philosophical purposes, and have some personal religious identification. I have taken the time to build my skills by studying texts and speeches to render what I gain into a motivational and purposeful lesson without ignorance of other faiths.
What were some of the challenges that you incurred in assembling your speech?
Admittedly, it is difficult for me to articulate points during the speech because I needed a concrete method of sharing my ideas along with my studies. I was hoping to connect what I learned by studying the different perspectives of religion to morals/lessons that can be taken away from it.
How could you have performed better on this milestone?
If I were to rework my presentation, I would have tried writing the speech down, while considering a natural flow to the order in which I stated my points. What I had done was take notes of various particles of my studies and connected them through philosophy. But as a different approach, I should have pre-written in order to clarify or correct certain major points.
What skills were required in this exercise that warrant further work, development?
Skills that are required to warrant further work and development would be studying various resources and learning how to extract concepts from them. These skills can then be used in future academia to be useful when trying to focus on an area of interest, and making it complement pre-examined studies. This also will enhance further decisions to provoke new teachings within that area of interest.
How would you describe your overall sense of accomplishment in this activity?
I feel that I have learned many different strategies to direct my thinking into focused topics. I feel that I have accomplished in areas of developing self-driven lessons, which reflects how I want to drive my learning experience into something important and personal.
Education is a valuable characteristic in all of our lives, and it travels in different ways. In this course, I was able to think critically about my future applications in college and further using education as a personal development experience.
We featured these 8 categories to break down the concepts that follow education:
Enrichment
Do It Yourself (DIY)
College/University
Experiential
Online
Vocational
Military
Religious
I developed this video as a feature presentation to summarize the thoughts and experiences gained from my Education in 8 Movements course.
Soccer is a global phenomenon in which a major percentage of people participate all around the world. In this course, we used soccer as a way to analyze various cultures and the interactions within them. Countries that have major characteristics as seen in their society can be represented through the ways soccer allows these expressions to occur. It is seen in not only the players, but the fans and how they protect their titles as soccer becomes a major nationalistic figure.
This course was inspired by the work of Franklin Foer: How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
This is a video I developed for my feature presentation final to demonstrate my knowledge of the course, and share information about this extended project for our future lesson plans.
Systems and models presents an omnipresent concept in all organizational applications.
Models are used to understand complex systems because they demonstrate concepts that can be broken down into understandable properties. These properties can range from physical tasks and function, to plans and ideas. Such models can accurately describe a process in which to look to for preparing major outcomes.
We as human beings live based on the fundamental principles of supportive living. This requires needs that can be fulfilled through a system of planned processes for continuing the duration of an assistance. People can be assisted through organization tactics like funding for certain areas of needs when countries are lacking in human resources.
Systems and models are used in technology for various organizational purposes. They are applied from a process of engineering thought then represented in models to allow a testable theory. Such planning can be used in robotics engineering all the way to other forms of structural invention.
Systems and models are important to me because I want to understand logic in all forms. To me it is essential to be able to think like a person of this process in order to live more intelligently and make decisions for desired outcomes.
Bellow is a brief presentation summary of how I ingest systems and models into my life and how it is represented as a logical process in the working world. This is to demonstrate my thesis by which all matters of function in life are presented through systems and models. I demonstrate this using a model from step-by-step systemics.
With my experience in the NASA-funded robotics project, I saw myself grow as a person who can feel confident about the outcomes of dedicated work. By being the team director of this project, having introduced the idea to my math/science teacher Mr. Bae, I learned the importance of commitment and planning. What I did by motivating my peers about this project it became very successful seeing how many students learned from the experience. It taught me the value of team ethic and being a prime instructor for guidance; knowing people could come to me for help and I would subject myself to their needs. It put me in a position of value and self-respect.
I learned about myself in ways of reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses. In areas of education, it is important to recognize what you can improve on and what you can build upon so that learning is a personal process of success. I saw a lot of my abilities come out, and I was also able to focus on improvement in areas of work. Given this project was highly integrated, I noticed various levels of expertise in which I could understand and others regarding social dexterity where I worked on improvements. Being a supporter of a working team taught me many values of the working environment which will prepare me for seeking out progress in my future.
In my efforts to be a person of assistance, I felt my job was to be a guidance for those who were challenged with organization tactics. In other ways, I myself was very caught up with much of this that I wish I could have differently involved myself in more ways. I did provide significance in the building process of the robotic figure, however it was difficult for me to cooperate with other individuals who wanted to share different ideas. Seeing the break down of ideas did advance my own understanding, but I do wish that I could have asserted more authority in that process.
I enjoyed seeing how people really advanced their understanding of group efforts and success in completion. I saw so much progress in how my classmates were genuinely motivated to produce ideas and dedication to the robot design, video work, website development, written portions, and interviewing. It grew to become a individualized passion in which we all wanted to gain something unique out of this experience. I am proud of having helped make this happen for everyone and being there to support them.
In the Millennium Development goals, we have a universal instruction to focus on important modifications in global societies. Robotics in itself is an ever-advancing expression of human evolution of rationality and mental work. We as people living in a connected system of living always develop new ways to assist the wellness of others. In its importance, I find that robotics best suits combating universal education in the sense we can continue to fully understand our capabilities. By integrating robotic building into schools, we can educate people on what can really be understood about human invention and applied functions. Just as I helped make happen at GCE by wanting to use FIRST robotics as a way to teach students professional development skills. Robotic building is not only the outcome of genuinely created function, but a symbol of understanding the importance of making personally dedicated goals to seek successful educational outcomes.
Our ‘Education in 8 Movements’ (Integrated English-History) class studied “Do It Yourself (DIY)” as a post-secondary learning option. We examined the challenges and benefits of a self-directed education from multiple perspectives, including autobiography. Below are a few of my thoughts on our subject of inquiry.
While studying Ayn Rand’s The Romantic Manifesto, I learned how character is shaped by values, and how our sense of life is informed by our emotional response to nature. Meanwhile, I reflected on some physical things I value, and how these influencers reveal my character.
During this Unit on DIY, I read some of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Like Franklin, I created a chart of 13 unique virtues and measured self-improvement on a daily basis. I grew most from my commitment to resolution because there are many different goals I want to set out for myself, and in my past I know that I often have failed to fully commit myself to them. I seek change everyday in order to re-work my goals and focus on them more often.
My classmates and I studied Frederick Douglass’ famous lecture, “Self-Made Men.” Mr. Douglass believed that success is achieved not through luck, but by another word: work. Here are my thoughts.
I checked out Anya Kamenetz’s book DIY-U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education. As a result, I’m exploring education alternatives, including DIY options.
In my Organizational Systems and Models class, I developed an equation to examine the content of a certain statistic I did research on. So I developed a math problem to explain the statistics I studied to better understand how to organize a system of data.
Problem:
The issue proposed in the artifact of death rates by suicide in the United States and in Japan, by 100,000 people, is based on the affecting variable: psychiatrists by 1 person of 100,000 people with some tangent in the diagnosis of mood disorders. By which there are 220,000 people who committed suicide in the United States and 500,000 people who committed suicide in Japan.
The independent factor that compliments the rate of deaths per country is proceeded by a diagnoses that seems to have little affect on the amount of suicides. This means of all eight countries, there are four countries with >10% diagnosed mood disorders out of 2 different approximate wholes of people who committed suicides: ~220,000 and ~500,000 victims. For the diagnosis of mood disorders per 100,000 people who committed suicide; there is 9% of ~220,000 people in the United states, and 4.5% of 500,000 people in Japan.
Solution:
The main co-factor dependent for the amount of suicides per country is primarily the amount of 1 psychiatrist accessed per 1 person by 100,000 people who committed suicide in certain populations.This is the break-down of these variables seen per country out of 2 different countries of interest: In the United States there are ~120,000 psychiatrists for ~220,000 people who committed suicide = 57% of suicide victims had a psychiatrist. In Japan there are ~70,000 psychiatrists for 500,000 people who committed suicide = 14% of suicide victims had a psychiatrist.
In summary, based on the amount of suicide victims in each country, we see Japan has 280,000 more suicide victims than the United states: that’s a 56% more victims than the U.S. Given the United states has 50,000 more psychiatrists than Japan for its 220,000 victims (that’s 280,000 suicide victims less than Japan’s 500,000 victims), that means the United States has 58% more psychological care for its victims than Japan does and has less victims in total. Therefore, the more psychological care is offered, the less suicide outcomes occur. The mood disorders increase based on the required attention needed to receive a psychiatrist, which is why there are more psychiatrists per suicide victim who had a mood disorder; who actually committed suicide. In Japan, there are less mood disorders and less psychiatrists but more suicide victims.
