Plato; The Allegory of the Cave

This was the first time I had been exposed to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. While the reading was rich I felt that my time spent on this piece of literature was well worth it. The greatest thing I took form this article was the idea that the blessed individuals, already aware of reality, had a duty and a responsibility to expose the less fortunate to this reality. As the article said, every person has the capabilities within them to understand, they just need to be turned on. Turning this switch on is the responsibility of those already aware of reality. This process won't be easy either. "At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him." This sentence exemplifies the struggle to free a fellow oppressed human and transform them over into reality. At first it's going to seem ridiculous but, step by step one can start to comprehend the bigger picture. "He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world."

While everyone has their own version of reality, many people today don''t want to take the time to understand each other's stance. It is hard work, as said in this allegory. It is much easier to stick to your own way of thinking rather than take time to wrap your mind around an idea that may seem so far out there. This allegory provides a solution to some greater misunderstandings of life but it is one of those concepts that is much easier said than done.

Stephanie S.

Evolution

The readings on evolution were very interesting to me. It informed the reader of the real meaning of the term evolution. It is not trying to explain the creation of human life. Religion is not a factor. Evolution and Natural Selection were explained in detail to the reader. An example was a type of white moths that lived in a city in New York. The city had many factories that released soot. The white moths were easily spotted amongst the blackened trees. Predators got many of the moths. As time went on, the species of moths turned dark. They were'nt as easily seen. Now the majority of the moths in New York City are dark to better match their surroundings. There was also the difference between microevolution and macroevolution. One is the creation of a new species. The other is a change in the genetics of a species.
Cody H

Reading Response: Freire and Gatto on the Public Education System.

While reading the Freire and Gatto, I enjoyed and agreed with the most of their discussion about the Public education system in America. In their article they criticized the public education system which is trying to make every individual a good citizen, but at the same time dull students. Somehow, If I think about the present system, It is true to some extent that our school’s are designed to teach the education as mandatory for every individual, but there real purpose is to make them servants for the society. Our teachers teach us the education which is already organized by the scholars and students are spouse to fill up all of that information which he considers as a true knowledge for them. Somehow, they are making students as a product, but not intelligent. The students should be taught beyond to the pre-designed education, they should not only given lectures, but also communicate with them, this could help them to establish good understanding and enhance their social skills because most of the individuals lack the social skills which are really important in their practical life. However, there should be a close relationship between a students and the teacher, by which they feel free to talk each other, so that the students can think creative and feel the independence. Meanwhile reading the Freire and Gatto, I came to the conclusion that education is the most important thing for every individual. They should not be made as a dull student, who goes to school, finish up with his studies and run for the job, but don’t know his aim in the life.

The Definition of Evolution

When reading the article What is Evolution?, I found myself being a little uninterested. I realized that evolution is the genetic changes that take place within a species over generations, having taken a biology class that taught me that several years ago. I did find one part a bit interesting and worth writing about however, however small it may be. I really liked how the author explains that when a species evolves, that does not mean that it becomes more advanced or better than what it was before the change. The author brings that point up frequently, almost to the point of irritation to the reader, but the point really is an important one. Although it may seem obvious and simple when thinking about it, as Moran went through several “incorrect” definitions of evolution extracted from several different dictionaries, a few even being dictionaries of science, it was made clear this was a crucial piece of the definition to clarify. Evolution is what happens when populations need to adapt to their environment. Those specific adaptations may be completely successful at one point, and completely unsuccessful at another, making the idea that the more species evolve, the better and more specialized they become very inaccurate. Chris Colby I feel explained this much clearer in his Introduction to Evolutionary Biology when he stated, “Evolution is not progress.” Although I am a firm believer that the definition of evolution is not yet perfect, since it has been constantly revised over several years, I do believe this is a large and significant part that must not be overlooked.

WhitneyS

Grr, Sniff, Arf

What I found most interesting in this article was how the different breeds are here to bring different things to our life. A pug is here to be "more companionable" while a dog with a long nose is here to hunt or herd. It was interesting to here that the pug is "more companionable" because they have retinas that are linked closer to humans, helping them see images closer to them. The observations that the author made were truly fascinating, I enjoyed reading the article "Dog Unwelt."

Courtney Timms.

Plato

I have read “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato many times now, but it is one piece of literature that I never get tired of reading. I love the set up being in dialogue it almost makes it easier to follow then it would if it were in a continues one speaker set up. The dialogue also allows the things being disgusted to be questions and analyzed further which really helps with grasping this complex concept. I love the scene that Plato lays out for us, the men chained up never seeing the real would only those that are being played in front of them by the players, and they're only see shadows. That whole concept of never seeing anything real and with substance just sounds terrible and not a way to live a life, the enlightenment that one man receives, the real world, just seems like what everyone should have. I understand what Plato is getting at the being enlightened part, but I don't think that others shouldn't get to experience the world and the truth. Plato said himself “the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural”, it is natural we're supposed to be exposed to all that there is to offer outside “holes” and “caves”.
Kylee w.

Evolution

I know I'm not supposed to talk about the video, but I am, because that's what I found the most interesting. I found the video very interesting because there was many things I had no idea about and would have never thought possible. When I first heard what they were talking about, "Phantom limbs, alien parents, but they're not crazy," I was totally like, they're crazy. But while watching they explained what was wrong, but I still didn't really understand until the example of the brain. My most successful learning methods, are literal visual examples, I do not learn from metaphors. It was extremely interesting how the brain could do things like that. I assumed that if there was a problem or connection in the brain it was just done, but this video just brightened my eyes to new possibilities.
So about the readings, those I did not find as interesting. Mostly, they're were uninteresting because I didn't understand it very easily. It was difficult for me to read, when they were talking about the different evolution and scientific findings of alleles and things. The example of the dark/light moth, and the "keep it in the family" example was fascinating to me. Because I realize that animals just naturally came up with this method of passing on their golden genes by keeping their family around to carry it out in some way. I learned many things from these articles and their were many that I already knew. I knew about the alleles and evolution and history of evolution through biology and health classes. It was a great brush up on the subject though.

Grr, Sniff, Arf

Out of the last few articles we have read, I found Grr, Sniff, Arf by Cathleen Shine to be the most interesting to me. What first caught my attention was the part about the rose. To most people, it is a beautiful flower with a great scent while to dogs, if roses were to disappear all of a sudden, it would not make a difference to them unless it had the scent of urine. I had never realized that the scent of urine determined time to them. I did not know that the types of noses on dogs had such an impact of their vision. It made more sense that the dogs with smaller noses tend to be the small lap dogs which focus on what is right in front of them while dogs with larger noses have more of a panoramic view. Their senses are so much greater than a human's, with having three-hundred million receptor sites compared to six million. I also found it interesting how dogs pay attention to the very small amount of time in between a human's blink and our facial expressions. I work at a kennel so I spend all of my time around dogs, and I also have two at home. After reading this article I've noticed how much they respond to my facial expressions and my movements. Overall, I found this article to be enjoyable and informative.

Katie C.

I found the video, reading the two articles “What is evolution” and “Introduction to evolutionary biology” very interesting because it made me understand more about the species that surround us. One thing that was more interesting to me and that I noticed the most, was that humans are not that different from species and animals, because we all need a partner to help us pass our genes to our offspring. I loved the revolutionary theory, and how evolution occurs though the action of natural selection. I never thought that species, especially the youngsters, inherit things from their parents like humans. I have always heard my mum saying that my eyes looks just like hers, and that I inherited her beauty. But I never thought species could inherit genes from other species. Perhaps take hummingbirds for example, when two parents have long beaks, their offspring will have a long beak. One of the processes of natural selection that was interesting was struggle for existence, because it made me think of humans. The way we struggle to survive. It made me think of crimes, death , day to day life. I have heard of people who were willing to kill each other because of hunger. Why do people commit robbery? People commit robbery for varieties of reasons, like trying to survive, and greed. People try to kill each other for money, and we see the same behavior in animals where they try to kill each other for food instead of money.



Istar Abu

reading response

Reading response

While reading these articles and watching the video i couldn't help but being skeptical. Science and the different theory's of evolution are constantly changing so why ever take anything to heart? I mean even with the recent discovery of Ardi a big portion of Darwin's theory of evolution has been discredited. Don't get me wrong  its obvious evolution exists, their is no arguing that fact. 

While reading the Introduction to Evolutionary Biology i got three basic facts out of it. The first, what exactly evolution is. From my understanding evolution is the changing of a species according to their environment over may generations. Its not a slow process, but a very long intricate one with many factors. One of those factors being sexual selection. The idea "survival of the fittest" does not always apply and sexual selection is proof of that. Your genes cant be passed on without a mate, so if your not chosen to mate with your genes dye out. The more attractive you are to the opposite sex the more likely you will be to procreate. To be high in success on the evolutionary chain you do not need to only be strong and beat out your peers but attractive to the opposite sex so you can pass your genes along. So being big and strong is not the key factor in your personal successful evolution but weather you are considered attractive by the opposite sex.

Another factor in the success of a species evolution is the possibility of genetic mutations. If an animals gene is changed something that could have been a positive evolutionary trait could be changed for the worse. A random change in an animals genes is rarely beneficial. 

Muriel Smith

RR 2 Dog's Umvelt

I found the material this week not quite as interesting as the weeks prior because I’m not big on the biological standpoints. I understand that they are necessary to have a grasp on all of the course content but I much preferred the nonfiction articles we were reading before. That aside of the more recent articles I found the one about Dogs to be the most interesting, probably because it wasn’t something I had read much about before. The other readings had me feeling like I was back in my freshmen year biology class, but the refresher was helpful. The Dog’s Umvelt reading really brought out the point that many humans take animals for granted. I didn’t know all of the differences that dogs had, how superior their sense of smell is allowing them to tell a lot about the world past present and future based on the smells around them. Many knew that they had a better than average sense of smell but until reading this article I didn’t realize how much better it was or how exactly it helped them. It relates back to the articles on evolution, and how citrine traits help animals to survive. Having a keen sense of smell helped them to survive by informing them of their surroundings. Because these traits were helpful to them they survived leading to off spring that had the similar traits for a good sense of smell and other key traits. Dogs who didn’t have the superior sense of smell may not have known predators were in the area and missed out on the possible dangers that were around them leading to them being killed off over others who could better grasp their surroundings.

Ariel M.

Grr, Sniff, Arf

I found this article interesting because it demonstrated that dogs are not just adorable, furry pets, but living creatures with reasons for doing what they do. For example, the author implied that lap dogs are lap dogs not because of their size but because, similar to humans, they are good at seeing things right in front of them which as Cathleen Schine said “makes them seem more companionable”. It goes to show that dogs, like people, have personalities and reasons for doing what they do.

Reading response- Hauser

In “Origins of the Mind”, Marc Hauser suggests that the human brain posses four traits that separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Hauser postulates that the human brain in uniquely capable of generative computation, promiscuous combination of ideas, use of symbols, and abstract thought.
As I read through the examples that Hauser presented for each trait, it was easy for me to understand the concepts of symbols and abstract thought. However, it was much more difficult to understand recursive thinking, combinatorial thinking, and promiscuous combination of ideas. I understand recursive thinking to be the use sequence and repetition to create new meanings. Quantum Physicists believe that there are an infinite amount of outcomes that can come of something that is performed infinitely. If an action is repeated an infinite amount of times, new meaning may eventually come of it. To me, this is recursive thinking at its best. Combinatorial thinking refers to the combinations of ideas to create new meanings. The German language, for example, uses compound words made up of smaller words that may hold different meanings once taken out of context.
I found Hauser’s paragraph on the promiscuous combination of ideas to be unsatisfactory. The way it was worded was confusing and hard to grasp. However, I understood the concept to be the combination of ideas from different aspects of our culture. Hauser refers to these aspects as “domains of knowledge”. This is easily explained with food culture. We take aspects of art and promiscuously combine artistic beauty with cuisine. We alone create beautiful cakes and artfully arranged platters.
Hauser’s concepts of symbols and abstract thought were mostly self-explanatory. Humans alone use written word, pictures and numbers to create meaning. We also conjure up notions of monsters, deities and myths.
All in all, I agree with many of Hauser’s notions and beliefs. This is not to say that I believe that these four traits are the only traits that separate us from other animals. However, Hauser’s ideas are presented in a way that is mostly understandable and easy to conceptualize. I’d be interested to see what else Mr. Hauser has to say about the individuality of the human mind.

Elena H.

Elephant Article

The reading on elephants was a very interesting one. It discussed to the social structure of a herd of elephants. It went as far to say that a herd is basically one elephant; as if one could not survive without the other. The entire herd revolves around the "mother matriarch" because she is the center of all knowledge. There are parallels between our society and that of elephants because we often use the term "Respect your elders." and "With age comes wisdom." and that is exactly how elephants function. The article also discussed the violence of elephants and how it was related to the detrimental effects that poaching has had on them. When the younger elephants lose the mother, or other significant figures of the herd, they have no guidance. They no longer have the close bonds to family and they become, for lack of a better way of saying it, cold and bitter. The younger males who don't have family ties end up causing the most damage. This article showed me that creatures can be complex beings as well, and the best way that we can understand them is to compare them to ourselves and find parallels.
Andrew Van Horn

Family Connections

The reading on elephants was a very interesting one. It discussed to the social structure of a herd of elephants. It went as far to say that a herd is basically one elephant; as if one could not survive without the other. The entire herd revolves around the "mother matriarch" because she is the center of all knowledge. There are parallels between our society and that of elephants because we often use the term "Respect your elders." and "With age comes wisdom." and that is exactly how elephants function. The article also discussed the violence of elephants and how it was related to the detrimental effects that poaching has had on them. When the younger elephants lose the mother, or other significant figures of the herd, they have no guidance. They no longer have the close bonds to family and they become, for lack of a better way of saying it, cold and bitter. The younger males who don't have family ties end up causing the most damage. This article showed me that creatures can be complex beings as well, and the best way that we can understand them is to compare them to ourselves and find parralells.

Dog Umwelt

“The idea that a dog owner must become the dominant member by using jerks or harsh words or other kinds of punishment, she writes, “is farther from what we know of the reality of wolf packs and closer to the timeworn fiction of the animal kingdom with humans at the pinnacle, exerting dominion over the rest. Wolves seem to learn from each other not by punishing each other but by observing each other. Dogs, too, are keen observers — of our reactions.”” I liked this passage because it’s very true. Most humans do try to dominate over other animals, never even giving thought to the idea that there is another, more peaceful, way to go about things.I also found this interesting:“In one enormously important variation from wolf behavior, dogs will look into our eyes. “Though they have inherited some aversion to staring too long at eyes, dogs seem to be predisposed to inspect our faces for information, for reassurance, for guidance.” They are staring, soulfully, into our umwelts. It seems only right that we try a little harder to reciprocate…”I know my dogs have looked at me like that before. Often when I’m angry and my dog looks at me she’ll lower her ears and look scared. I never really thought to try to understand them too. Not beyond the obvious anyways. One thing I didn’t like about this article is that it was more like a review of a book than an article written about the author’s ideas on the subject. The author referred to the book a lot and for the most part just went off that. Which is fine, I was just expecting something a little different.
-Kelly Dickens

elephant world

the essay i read on the elephants almost made me sick. when they talked about having a group consensus on hanging an elephant who lashed out against her trainers i almost threw up. learning about elephants and how they have censors in their feet which can detect "messages" from other elephants from up to four miles away made me love them more. also, re-reading about the elephant family dynamic and how they mourn over other elephants', especially those in their families, deaths, linked them more to humans than other animals. the way they bury their dead and mourn over the bodies also connects them on a very emotional level to the world. i really like elephants, and reading about the depression raging through the elephant world made me really sad. the way they have been lashing out against the villiagers didn't make me feel as bad for the people as it did for the elephants. knowing that something is wrong with the entire elephant population worries me for the future, which could be potentially elephant-less. we don't seem to care about animals and their welfare in the wild as much as we should. we are such an egocentric species that we only worry about our own kind, and we don't worry about the world around us as much as we should. the essay made me really sad about the mistreatment of circus animals and the way we treat them when they lash out against us, as they have a right to do. we underestimate the intelligence of animals because they aren't like us. i take the elephants' side on this matter.

RR #2

For my second reading response I am going to be talking about “Inside of a Dog, What Dogs See, Smell, and Know” written by Alexandra Horowitz. I found this article to be the most fascinating of them all so far this term. Learning about this particular species was incredibly interesting and caused me to gain more respect for dogs, including my own. I found it amazing that dogs pay attention compared to humans. I believed dogs would try to understand concepts more, but after reading this article I was proven wrong. For example when Horowitz talks about what a rose is to humans and to how it is different to dogs fascinated me. I always believed that dogs sniffed this object for the wonderful smell, not for the stench of urine. I believed that humans pay more attention to objects and capture all the details, and to the dog species, they simply see it as a boring object that has nothing special attached to it. Yet I was proven wrong because dogs see more of the world compared to society with their advanced vision. Another concept I found interesting was how a hammer can have so much importance to society as a tool, yet to an animal it is seen as a chew toy or just an object simply laying there sharing no importance to the world. Overall I found this article extremely interesting and now that I have finished reading this I have gained more respect for my dog. Knowing how they are more aware compared to humans even though it may not seem like it causes me to give more respect for the dog species overall.
Noelle M.

q

On "An Elephant Crackup?" by Charles Siebert
It verified what I already knew which is that animals are a lot smarter than most people give them credit for. This story confirmed that animals, especially elephants do communicate sophisticatedly, have incredible memories and can and will defend themselves when needed. Possibly as smart as humans? Second thing it verified is that there are too many people in the world and we need NOT exploit animals for our entertainment.
On "Origin of the Mind" by Marc Hauser
Marc Hauser has an entirely different point of view. His theory and those he references in his article believes that animals are not as intelligent as humans and that we are further up the evolutionary scale than they. I don't know. In this class we seem to be leaning toward the school of thought that humans are the most intelligent creatures. With the material we've read so far I am starting to have a broader point of view on human intelligence, one of which I had when I was a younger child. That is when I was younger I believed that we are the most intelligent beings, however when I got older and more mature and started believing in the possibility of evolution etc. and watching more nature television I came to discover that animals have incredible intelligence. Now I'm just confused! Who is more intelligent? What is intelligence? Who says so?
On "On Questions of Temperment" Demonic Males by Dale Peterson and Richard Wrangham give damning evidence against men. Whether it is inherent or learned or evolution is anybodies guess. But, Wow, 2 men wrote this? I have to admit more men have made messes of countries in modern days than women. Vote women into office...
On "Are We Born Moral?" by John Gray. He referenced a previous author's observation that primates don't like inequities in food distribution. I suppose in humans greed and generosity depend on your family size. Primates live in huge extended "family" units. I grew up with 6 brothers and sisters. We were expected by our parents et el to share. Furthermore sometimes you'd get your brains beat in if you didn't!
So, what am I learning? I'm not sure really. I thought I was well rounded but I am introduced to lots of new thoughts and I feel a bit lost, more so than in any other schooling environment. Bill Thompson.

Defining nature: By Bill Thompson UNST
Nature is anything of or pertaining to nature or anything natural, such as trees, mountains, streams, animals etc. Or human nature.

Defining human: Human is anything of or related to human such as humans or humane in nature or treatment of anything. Any one in or born to the human race. Having human characteristics. Acting human i.e. using actions which are normal or natural for humans.

The idea of this assignment is to show that the 2 words are parallel and one cannot be defined without using the other.

Evo evo evolution.

Alas! Someone bold enough to point out that evolution does NOT mean progress. I think it is such a common misconception that people have that the more we evolve the better we come. True, humans have become quite complex creatures, but the continuance of this change seems unlikely. For example, look at the survival rate unhealthy people, whether they have disabilities, cancer, AIDS... I support the medical advancement towards helping these people, the idea being one of utmost compassion, but it worries me that we have almost eliminated Natural Selection in our species, at least in western civilizations. I was reading Native American quotes at the library the other day and one was declining a request to send more Native American youth to the Mary and William University. The chief talks about how the last time they participated in such foreign exchange, the youth came back to their tribe completely useless - they could not run, fish, hunt or fight. Though this does not directly relate to evolution, it provides outside perception on how we have been pushing our youth to be unaware of natural survival and more successful in more intellectual (artificial?) matters. Could this be considered evolutionary drift?

human/nature

Human/Naturemailto:kpan@pdx.edu
10-08-09
A brief paper on UNST readings on critical thinking and education. ; “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” challenges us to think critically. Telling us to be prepared for the vast differences in high school and college. Columbo challenges us to put ourselves in an El Salvadoran person’s place as he reads the title of a the book “Rereading America” and reminds us that The United States is not the only country in North America and it is the arrogance of we in the United States who take it for granted that it is the only country. Something of which I can say with pride that I am not guilty. The fact that people do not know what North America includes is evidence of the dubious quality of our education system. Columbo’s example of cultural myths was very profound in “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethk. Which to today’s generation sounds like a perverted, abusive situation, turnsout to me to be quite a sweet memory a boy has of his father. It took some critical thinking onmy part to get over the afore mentioned.Second; “Against School” by Gatto showed us one man’s opinion of the inadequacies of the public schools. Having worked in the public schools in Houston, TX, I agree wholeheartedly. The main focus for the school year was to pass the state test. Further the state test was a testfor the teachers as well. If a teacher had failing students they were seen as incapable of teaching his/her students and were not considered for promotions etc. It was holey the fault of the teacher. It was the main focus of the principal to bully teachers to pass their kids. However his opinion seemed to say that formal and or public education is not needed. He did make the point to say that the teachers and students are to blame. He did not say anything about the parents being to blame which they are more than the lion’s share of the problem. No discipline. Parents do not want to take responsibility for their childrens’ actions. Gato asked the question, “Do we really need school?” and I believe we do. I think it teaches children regimented schedules, usually good conflict resolution skills, how to get along with others, other than their own siblings and most importantly an education.Third; “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is Freire’s point of view how we are a factory of teaching and learning. The teachers are forced to teach facts and students are forced to learn by memorization. An assembly line of mindless repetition. What Freire calls “Banking concept”. They deposit i.e. teach, we learn i.e. earn dividends (dividends to be earned later in life with a successful career). I personally find nothing wrong with teaching people to memorize facts. That is how it done. When I was in grade school we were taught to memorize times tables up through 12. Yes, there is a logic behind 12X12 but if you let a child count on his fingers/toes to figure out his multiplication table using his appendages 5X4 is as far as he will get as I know of no one who has 144 appendages. The student will have to start pulling out hair!I have met too many people from other countries who know more about our country than we do about theirs or even ours. When someone says she is from New Jersey, there is nothing wrong with knowing; “The Garden State, must grow lots of fruits and vegetables one of the wealthiest states in the country, coastal state, must have lots of tourism, closely situated to New York City and Philadelphia, lots of suburbia………………….”The object of these articles is to teach us to think critically and to think critically about education and whether it is important or not. I believe that education is the most important thing you can do for a person of any age, creed, color, etc. We cannot live whole lives without it.These articles have given me an opportunity to reflect on my own life as a student. I hated school most of my life. I bucked the systems which the authors spoke of. I ended up taking one boring, dead-end job after another because they were easy to get. Every time I get tired with one job I go to another. Every job change made me think about “what do I want to do when I grow up?” I attempted college when I was right out of high school but dropped out after 2 semesters. Then later when I became interested in the world around me I decided to go backto college, first for political science, which I finally realized that I’d never get a job as politician in such a place as Houston, TX. Second, for teaching, until I worked in a public school and realized how much I disliked children It is my deepest desire that every person in the world receives a good and thorough education so they don’t end up like me; going to college at my age with a resume as long as my arm. It is sad to find out about how low our country ranks among the other world countries ineducation, 15th in math and science and 11th in reading. This was on the “Steven Colbert”, acomedy news program which does actual news stories with a comedic twist. Being the 3Rdmost populated country in the world, with the most wealth and one of the highest GNP makes it embarrassing to be so low on the totem pole. These are just a few silly facts I’ve memorized!


L






s

Reader Responce #2: Grrr, Sniff, Arf

I am going to be doing my second reader response on the article "Grrr,Sniff,Arf" By. Cathleen Schine. I found this article to be very eye opening in how I view dogs. A lot of the information in the article I had no idea about. I liked how she talked about each of the different aspects of how dogs communicated and see the world in front of them. How they use scent to see the past and the future. Obviously we cannot see what a dog see's or think what a dog thinks, but I think she has a fairly good grasp on the situation. I also enjoyed how in depth she got with a simple game of fetch; "This is more than a game of fetch; it is a profound, existential realization."
I also think the reason that most dogs do not travel in packs anymore is because the lifestyle most dogs live now there is no need, they have adapted to the simpler life style and hunting is no longer a priority like it is with wolves.

Dog Umwelt by: John Wall

I was interested in the article “Dog Umwelt” by: Alexandra Horowitz. She ended up about describing two perspectives that different dogs have. Such as how certain dogs like a pug have flattened snouts tend to only notice or see things that happen right in front of them like humans. That’s the reason pugs are considered lap dogs and only tend to focus on their human companion. Unlike dogs with longer snouts, which focus on objects further out and tend to be more of scavengers or hunting dogs.

She also talked about how dogs smell way better than humans. Mainly because the way their nose is designed and they have some 300 million receptors in their nose when humans only have 6 million. Their nose has slits on the sides so that there can be a constant flow of air and the scent is constantly being refreshed compared to a human who has to constantly breathe in and out.

I found this all quite interesting because I have a dog of my own which is a Jack-Russell and he is always on the hunt for some rodent. This makes sense because he has a longer snout and tends to focus on things further away. Also I go bird hunting with my buddy and he brings along his bird dogs. It is amazing to think that their noses have 300 million receptors while we only have 6 million. No wonder they can follow a scent so well on the ground to where the pheasant is. I think be reading this article I’ve learned that there is more than one perspective besides mine.

plato

I was thinking about the Plato reading later after we had talked about it in class and thought of an explanation for whats going on. It is a metaphor for growing up in a culture (the cave) and being blinded by it. Then about leaving the cave (or your neighborhood/culture) and seeing the world as a whole.
One man leaves and sees an overwhelming amount of the world and then he feels truly enlightened, like he has seen all there is to see. He feels he knows the meaning of life, people, the world. He then starts to teach others, he is "all knowing" so in his mind, he is fit to teach others. Then he goes back to the cave/neighborhood and he knows nothing, he has forgotten what it is to look at the world from different perspectives.
Another man leaves the cave and studies all sorts of worldly things but also he just observes and takes in what he sees. But he soon realizes that the more he sees the less he knows and he is humbled, and he is wise. He should be the teacher as he will teach them that there is always more to learn.

Past life as a dog or just a mind reader?

After reading "Inside a Dog" by Alexandra Horowitz, I found myself quite content with some of the observations explained, but also a bit weary of some. I was extremely pleased that I was not the only one who believed dogs responded better to "baby-talk" in comparison to a normal voice tone. I actually sent this article to my brother as "proof" I wasn't crazy, though I'm sure he will still give me a hard time regardless =]. Along with that, I also enjoyed the comparison of dog packs to wolf packs, and the struggle humans have with their techniques of trying to enforce dominancy. It forced me to look back on my own experiences with dogs, whether it was owning my own dogs, dog sitting for neighbors, or my volunteer work at the humane society. When I saw people try to foce dogs to do something with strength, the dog would merely go into submission and only follow orders due to fear. Then there were the trainers who would use rewards, such as a scratch of the ear or even a well deserved biscuit, these dogs, they were only too willing to please, in other words, making them much more manageable and lovable companions. However, when I got to the discussions of how dogs perceive time, facial expressions, and scent, I found myself unconvinced. I do not see ow anyone could make these claims without having been said animal, and perhaps she might have been a dog in a past life, but I'm not so sure I would trust someone who made that claim either. A mind can only be understood by the one who possesses it.

-Maddie T.

Dog's umvelt or Conjecture of a Dog

When I started reading Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz I was interested. She started off with stating “a dog’s view is not immediately accessible to us” and I agree with that. Although I don’t think it is accessible at all. Throughout this column I found myself agreeing with some parts and completely disagreeing with other parts. I did not like how the author wrote in a way that she was speaking for the dogs like she knew exactly what they were thinking or what was really going on in their minds. Some parts were necessary but most of the time it was arbitrary and unavailing. I understand the fact that we are supposed to imagine this journey into the dog’s umvelt, but why must it sound so bias toward dogs? In a way Dr. Horowitz makes it seem that dogs are more advanced in senses than we are. Although, they might have some advantages in smelling and eyesight, our senses are more advance so I would think. How does she know whether or not dogs can see the time between our blinks? They might experience the world faster than us but how do we know whether they log all they see at one time? We don’t know and can’t because in order to we must become a dog and experience it for ourselves. I was not very amused by the way this article was written trying to explain the cognitive experience of a different life form. In order to do this, you must be that life form; in this case a dog.

Spencer

Evolution

During the readings on natural selection I was wondering why I was assigned to read it in the first place. It appeared very random compared to what we had just been discussing, which was something like how we perceive the physical world is just our senses making sense of things. At least that’s something I got out of what we’ve been learning. One reason I think we may have been given the readings was to give people a better understanding about evolution in general. It also may have been to show creationist that they can be religious and don’t have to deny evolution. Although I was at the recent Richard Dawkins lecture and he definitely was saying believing in any religion and believing in evolution doesn’t really work out because they contradict each other.

Corbin B.

Le Guin

The story of Buffalo Gals is a very diverse story. It begins with the idea that it will be a realistic story, with the little girls getting in a plane crash and then seeking out her father. After that, it becomes a much more imaginitive story with Coyote taking her in as her own. This kind of story pushes people to think beyond what they know and think interpretively about an animals way of life and the reasons behind it. It is difficult for people to connect a relationship between human and animal when it is not advertantly shoved in their face. In this story they give animals many human characteristics to make a comparison to them being humanistic. The animals take the form of humans even though they continue to live as animals. They live like animals, yet they are still are as civilized as most humans would be, such as taking in a wounded, scared child with no where else to go. I believe that this story is used as an eye-opener to get people to really think and use their imaginations to find the comparison and use that to interpret if and why, animals could really be as civil as humans.

Dog Umwelt/ Elephant Crackup?

Human and nature. Human nature. I suppose that when one thinks critically, it is safe to assume that though the two have different meanings, they can be interlinked.
When reading Horowitz's, Inside Of A Dog, and the article, Elephant Crackup, I definitely had to some critical thinking myself.
Though I have never had an actual pet, my family member around me did. My grandmother had a Great Dane. I never understood why friends cried when their dog died until our Rocky had to be put to sleep because of an enlarged heart. While reading the short article, it provided a small insight into a dog’s mentality. Their umvelt, their subjective or self world, is a perfect way of putting it. While they may participate in activities we engage in, it has a different meaning and difference to them. We as humans, for the most part thrive on our emotional senses. It was just amazing to also get a glance at how their sense of smell impacts other aspects of their life. Not just their noses.
An Elephant Crackup was an article that intrigued me. In reading this article I found myself asking,” What is going on with these elephants?” After reading more I found my speculations transforming from a defensive opinion to a thought of sympathy. It was amazing and heartwarming to see that the mentality and emotional state of these animals are a lot more sensitive than one would imagine. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is something that they can suffer from during their life span. Reading that young elephants can have this syndrome because of prior experiences of watching their parents poached, or killed in front of them causing them long term pain mentally and perhaps altering their behavior, really spoke to me. I also came to the sudden realization that took me back to certain events in my childhood that did damage to me. Things that I am recovering from that do have an impact and are factors in my thought process and values today. These animals have an amazing ability through action and way of life to express how they feel or state of mind and I find that amazing. I definitely agree with Bradshaw that there are ways to affect the lives of these elephants and our own to better live together instead of continuing with the cycle we are in now.

Gatto Against School Response

I did not agree with Gatto’s idea against school. Of course we all think that our education system is holding us back from our intellectual potential. But we have to go to school becausewe have to learn to adapt to our society. Courses in high school may seem pointless but their purpose is to help your mind grow so that when you come upon later courses such as medicine or business you’ll be mentally prepared for them.

Gatto enforces his argument with people who lived over a hundred years ago. It was a different time back then. Only a few were to have a school education. It was an entirely different culture. Today if we were to not go to school most of us would even have the discipline to contribute enough back to society. How will doctors know the necessary information to perform medicine? Or how would entrepreneurs start successful companies if they didn’t know the necessary actions to run a business. Without education society would go down. It’s hard to believe but I think that it is the simple truth.

Garret K.

Secrets of the Mind overview

Secrets of the Mind

I’m going to use this entry to provide a quick overview of the events of the video to inform your discussions, since you have no text to which you can refer back. Of course I’m brimming w/ interpretations and connections, but I’ll try and resist the temptation to dive in for the moment. You, on the other hand, should have at it. What do these dysfunctions tell us about normal consciousness and awareness?

Neurologist : V.S. Ramachandran

Phantom Limb Sensations following amputation. Pain and sensation of a limb which is gone. (the sensory neurons which delivered information from the limb to the brain survive the loss of the limb, any activation of those neurons is perceived as occurring at the limb) Reassignment of the somato-sensory cortex region from arm to cheek

Blind Sight. Perception of motion, but no conscious awareness of an object's shape, color, size etc. Ramachandran uses the phenomenon to illustrate that our brain can be receiving visual information without our being aware of it. I find it a better demonstration that the various components of vision (color, shape, motion, …) travel by different pathways and then are reassembled for conscious awareness in the primary visual cortex in the rear of the cerebrum (occipital lobe). He talks about “What” pathways by way of the temporal lobe which are involved in the identification of objects and “How” pathways which are more concerned with how we move through the environment (the visual cues that you use to ride a bicycle or hit a baseball or duck an oncoming tree limb). When is consciousness helpful, when is it detrimental? Peggy was the woman whose stroke in the parietal lobe interfered w/ her awareness of the left visual field including her memories and her daisy drawings

Capgras Delusion: Impostor Syndrome. David thinks that his parents are impostors. When he only hears their voices he acknowledges them as his parents. Ramachandran proposes that the delusion stems from an injury in the connection between the “What” visual center in the temporal lobes with the Amygdala which is the area where visual info enters the Limbic System, the source of your emotional reactions.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: epilepsy is a disease in which there are episodes of uncontrolled brain activity resulting in seizures. In this specific case the patient experiences periods of enlightenment or rapture following the seizures in which he perceives a wide range of events as having profound, even religious, significance. Ramachandran points out the areas affected include the links between the Amygdala and the Temporal Lobe.

Gatto response.

As a student, I agree with Gatto. Young adults shouldn’t push themselves so hard to reach social acceptance in terms of education. I don’t like the rigorous schedule we are forced to undergo from the time we enter primary school to the day of our graduation. Why must a simple letter determine our worth? If I get an A in chemistry, for example, I’m determined to be intelligent… but what if I simply memorized the text? That means I’m capable of jumping through the hoops placed in front of me, not that I proved I can actually succeed, or that I challenged myself. Critical thinking and intelligence comes from learning how to apply the information I have absorbed, not just displaying the capacity to satisfy the instructor's commands and instruction.

It really disturbed me when Gatto mentioned his job loss. For someone held in such high-esteem to be replaced so easily, it really shocked me to know that it could happen to anyone, because the corporate mindset doesn’t focus on us individually. Gatto was completely right. I feel like my talent and unique personality is hidden away in the pursuit for the good grade. I loved this article, it made me realize I can still achieve my dreams regardless of how I am judged by society’s standards.

Clara G.

Gatto-Against School

Should we be going to school or being forced to go to school all these days; its usually " six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years?" Is this really necessary for one to get a good education nowadays and become someone successful and have a whats considered a good life?...I think that to become an educated person you don't have to end up going to school for years and years to come. This country has brought us up thinking that for one to gain "success", we've got to go K-12 and then continue onto a college or university for us to become someone who will be appreciated and recognized by the community. Many examples of famous people come to mind to me: Lil Wayne, Benjamin Franklin, Abe Lincoln and many others who didn't go to school but still came out with an education and made something really great from their lives. I'm not stating that we should all dropout and find our own way of getting knowledge but if schools not for us and we can still move forward and gain a career that will provide for one's self our or family and give us a life that we'll enjoy. :D

PLATO

Reading this allegory enabled me to reflect. Of course, while reading all of our texts, there has been some critical thinking involved in each. I enjoyed reading it. Plato causes you to think critically because of being interested and not because of being asked too. I enjoyed his views on how being enlightened can have pros and cons. I liked the picture I got to mind when he portrayed would it would be like to be enlightened and to go back to where one came from and from being in darkness and experiencing light.

It seems that when you have been naive, whether it be in certain areas of your life or because of being sheltered, and you are introduced to the light of knowledge and truth, that things would become better and clearer. Sometimes, I believe Plato was inferring, that you can lose sight of the value of being enlightened and mistake it for being better than someone else or rather, the people that are in the position you were once in.

He brings up politics , as he was very involved in this area during his time, and he goes off on the limb with the bold statement to say that the enlightened are the leaders. That statement holds a lot of truth. But even those politicians lose sight to the problems that once hindered them.

While it seems confusing, Plato made a lot of points that have to do with today's society.

Buffalo Gals

Buffalo Gals challenged me to think beyond what I was reading. I had to think about who coyote was and what she represented. Humans and animals are very alike in many ways. This story showed that animals have lives and families just like humans do. It showed how they helped and loved each other. They have emotions and struggles like humans have. The story really showed these similarities.

By the end of the story, the little girl was able to see the animal world and the human world as the same. She learned to give respect to living things. Unfortunately, she was also able to see the evil in the world when coyote was killed. She didn’t want to go back to world she came from where humans were all that mattered. She had been enlightened and inspired by her new life. The animals had taken her in and became her friends and family. She had suffered so much already, why would they make her go back?

I think the story was very good although a little strange. It was meant to make us think and to look at the situation with an open mind. Talking, fully dressed animals don’t really exist but the point was to show the reader a new world. The child was able to accept, fit in, and eventually love this world. It showed that if you are open-minded, new worlds may be possible to find.

Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths" challenges us to think critically. Telling us to be prepared for the vastly differences in high school and college. Columbo challenges us to put ourselves in an El Salvadoran person's place as he reads the title of a book "Rereading America" and reminds us that The United States is not the only country in North America and it is the arrogance of we in the United States who take it for granted that it is the only country in North America. Something of which I can say with pride that I am not guilty. The fact that people do not know what North America includes is evidence of the dubious quality of our education system.
Columbo's example of cultural myths was very profound in "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethk. Which to today's generation, and probably rightfully so sounds like a perverted, abusive situation, turns out to me to be quite a sweet memory a boy has of his father. It took some critical thinking on my part to get over the afore mentioned.

Survey response

The survey was interesting. It asked very personal questions and I believe it will help out us students in the future. How is it helping us? Well if people have trouble with transportation or financially, PSU will prob make some adjustments to help out those who struggle getting on campus or to pay for transportation. This survey may also let PSU know and realize that maybe raising the tuition isnt a really great idea because we all know college is expensive. But again, laying out information from students will give a better understanding of students who attend it and how hard it may be just to be here twice a week, three times a week, or everyday of the week.

Plato

Plato
To reflect upon this reading, it has a lot to do with today’s society. Whether it’s through media or religions, we now today strive to live better. As an example such as Christians, they are wanted to be accepted to heaven. They want to live in a good environment after death. Christians fear the fact that they will be sent to hell rather than the peaceful heaven. Everyday people live with sin, sin sometime just come their way.
It is interesting to me how it explains in the story how if a man tried to struggle to get free it would just suffer more and it was a sin. It also explains how these drawing or paintings on the walls spoke to them and how you can see the shadow. The beliefs from these people through their religion allow them to suffer. In so many different aspects, if the prisoners were to look at the light they would become blind and not able to see they would look away. Therefore, to comfort themselves in the suffering pain in the cave, they imagine their own story with closed eyes. Here it quotes “I think that he would suffer than anything than entertain the false notions and live in this miserable manner.” These prisoners were actually never to see or experience the realities of the real world.

John Her

LE GUIN

after reading some of these posts it was brought to my attention that coyote was a person. for whatever reason i was thinking it was some sort of wolf or animal.
another interesting thing in this story is that animals and humans are both "people" which is different from our society. it seems to be suggesting that we are similar to them, and they can talk so it gets confusing. i enjoyed the story because of how out of the ordinary it is. its challenging us to think past the norm and consider animals and humans coexisting together in a little town. Coyote is suggested as being crazy and the fact that she talks to her poop pretty much clarifys that. she acts like they are her children. this is another thing that makes this story weird, along with the fact that this little child with one eye can comprehend any of what has happened to her.

Quinn P.

Gatto RR

Reflecting upon the readings we have discussed thus far, Gatto’s article where he talks about his opinion in which he believes our education system is crippling our kids, was a stance that I agree with for the most part. His opinion of encouraging the best qualities out of our students youthfulness, such as helping them use their natural qualities of curiosity, intrigue and their sense of adventure and adapt into our schooling system contrary to what is in place now . His suggestion of offering more flexibility and being able find the natural path of insight for each individual student wouldn’t just help our students become more fully rounded adults but also help them become more integrated in our society with the education they received.

I was really struck by his opposition of Ingles’ 6 functions, especially the selective function in which it discusses how the school systems application to “the favored races.” Where students are sorted into certain branches creating an inferiority, which then translated into the jobs they have options for, and is a fundamental force in what drives our economy. Instead of using alternative methods in helping the students who are tagged unfit find their niche, in learning things that are crucial to their respective personalities and ideas. But instead these students become neglected and tainted with poor grades, that doesn’t help advance who they are as people but instead giving them a leftover role of our socio-economic structure which only benefits those that weren’t subjected from the very beginning of their education as well as other external factors.

Personally, I agree with a lot of Gatto’s points because it highlights the main issues with our education system. When I was in Middle school, most teachers taught class in a traditional textbook format, but in one class, all of the assignments where open ended and designed to create an environment where critical thought and reflective discussion where more important and overshadowed the sorting functions of grades and tests. As I look back on my time in that class I see that I learned a lot more valuable information not only about the material but as well as myself , opposed to the more the traditionally taught classes that where much more frequent in my k-12 public school life.

Chris L.

"Against School" Reading Response

I love to read. I always have. I read boring things and interesting things, things I remember and mostly things I forget. Lately, I read a lot of critical things- about the government and its leaders. I’ve learned to scan over those oh-so-prevalent expressions of opinion and form my own hypothesis based on what I already know and see. But somehow Gatto’s article “Against School” struck me differently than the rants on the back page of the weekly alternative newspaper. I found myself so excited by the points he was making, so surprised to find that someone, somewhere, had put into words what I had somehow suspected to be true all along, that I nearly emailed the article to my family and friends. I still might.

That sounds geeky, I know, but it has to do with how I was raised. Due to my health, I was unable to attend public school until grade eight, at which time I myself begged my parents to let me enroll. Up until that point, my brother and I were “homeschooled” or at least that’s what we learned to call it. We rarely did anything at all which resembled the arbitrary notion of school most our peers and their parents referred to. We played outside, we read random passages out of encyclopedias for fun, we watched OPB and we cooked with our mom. We were read to at night and slept in as late as we wanted in the morning. It was hardly an ideal environment for fostering intelligence. And to be sure, when I finally entered Junior High at thirteen with no notion whatsoever of how to factor equations, I felt stupid. But I also had experiences much more valuable than the kids around me. I wasn’t used to holding my teachers in near religious reverence, so we related on a more human level. I had never before been punished for getting up to relieve myself without permission and it seemed dehumanizing. And finally, the phenomenon of being “too smart” or “over achieving” would have seemed nearly comical had it not come with so much stigma.

Gatto’s article addressed all these areas and many more. From briefly looking over some of the other responses to this essay, I can tell it was not generally well received. But that seems to prove exactly Gatto’s point. Most children who are taken through a compulsory schooling and spit out, after 12 years, at a point where they can finally choose what they learn and how they learn it, are wholly unprepared to think of their education as anything but obligatory. Having worked very hard myself to get back into school, but not having a classical history in the school system, I can see how “critical thinking”- the type of processes encouraged in higher education but rarely in a mandatory schooling, is key to becoming an educated and well rounded person. But it can only be achieved after the method of thought we have learned from our k-12 education has been abandoned. I don’t think Gatto is really “against school”. I think he is simply against dogmatic thought and its propagation in America’s public school systems. But his point was made and it, incidentally, made me very glad indeed to be back in school at all.

Kate S.

Gatto

I loved Gatto's idea, saying that we dont need school to be educated and showed many people from history who were successful without going to school. I completely support that idea, because i do believe a person can be successful and can survive without school. That we can educate ourselves. There so many things that i taught myself that i didn't learn from teachers.

istar Abu

Buffalo Gals

This story is amazing because its makes you wonder if animals would show so much kindness to a human, and it is also unbelievable how a little girl would lay next to a coyote, and not be scaried. There was one point in the story where the coyote explains to the Gal that there were only two kinds of people, and tells the child that the first people were animals, children etc. I that the coyote was inferring that the animals where the first people created. I do believe that animals were created first before humans. But i wouldn't call animals people though. I liked this story because, i loved the sensivity of the animals. And i do think that some animals a kind.

istar Abu

Freire’s article discussed the current school system as a “banking system”, where information is deposited into the students in order to be regurgitated at a later date and proposed a “problem posing” system that would encourage critical thinking instead of regurgitation of information. Freire claimed that this banking system dehumanizes students and discourages individuality. I agree for the most part with the opinion of the article. A system of education that treats its students like ATM machines, does nothing more than dehumanize them enough to fulfill their role in our mechanical society. Public schooling was initially brought up during the renaissance by “humanists” in order to produce educated citizens who would be able to take part in their civic duties. I don’t think these “humanists” understood the dehumanizing consequences of molding prospective citizens into memorizing and repeating machines. Education should be about letting students reach their full potential as critically thinking humans instead of turning out robots to maintain the state of society.

Le Guin

Human/Nature

MacCormack/Ghnaim

I wanted to point out the differences between left and right, west and east. These metaphors were present throughout the entirety of the work. Some quotes:

"She kept her hand pressed over the right eyesocket".- pg. 62 (hurting her eye)

"… only the long west (left) held a great depth of pale radiance. Eastward (right) the plains ran down into night".- pg. 67 (getting a new eye)

"The eastern mountains were a cloudy dark red as if the level light shone through them as through a hand held before the fire".- pg. 75 (waking, day of Coyote's death)

"Sun went down the last slope of the west and left a pale green clarity over the desert hills".- pg. 77 (Before Coyote eats poison)

I would say that based on these quotes the right would be the "bad", "dark" side, and the left is the "pure", "light" side. Every time right/east is mentioned, included is either night, red, fire, pain. Every time left/west is mentioned, included is either radiance or "pale… clarity".

evan t.

Buffalo Gals

Courtney Timms
Human/Nature
Alan MacCormack/Safa Ghaim

The Buffalo Gals
“So, to me you’re basically grayish yellow and run on four legs. To that lot-” Coyote from Le Guin

After reading this quote I began to think about how much as humans, we are drastically alike. We seem to separate ourselves with our person “identities” and in that we forget how similar each of us really is. To survive our basic needs need to be met. It made me realize in every person you see there is a similarity you and that person share, whether its slim; like needing food and water. Or may be more complex like sharing the same cultural customs, religion, or traditions. I have found myself in the past saying, “Well we don’t have much in common.” But in the realm of things if you dive deep enough to try and get to know one another you can find many things in common.

Columbo/Gatto

To begin reading with Columbo, gaining an understanding what thinking critically does consist of, helps me "try" to see the perspectives in which Gatto shared in his article. Columbo provided for me, a better understanding to how critical thinking has different aspects. He provides his basic definition on what critical thinking is and the basis from which he believes it is derived. I must say that reading him first gave me the insight on how to deal with authors like Gatto, with patience and an open mind. Culturally, as Columbo mentions, I would definitely say that my opinions and perspectives on how I see education, in particular, public education, as a necessity and a path, an opinion based on how I was raised and see things. Growing up in an inner city and moving to a rural area, I see the differences in education and how even an individuals attitude towards teaching differs.
I believe my childhood experiences are reasons for my passion in the subject. I think Gatto was bored enough to compose this silly article. While it is his opinion and it seems the article was well written, I feel his personal experiences and crummy career played a role on his biased opinion on what public education is really trying to do. I don't see public education as factories. No one cares, and I will speak for myself, about how he got screwed while he was on leave. He referenced a lot of his work on authors and educators from other universities. I disagree that our system is like Prussia. Once again, I am completely impassive about how many activities or jobs James Bryant Conan had and his negativity in general to education. I just don't like this guy.

Gatto/Freire Reading Response

As I read Gatto and Freire and their opinions on education, I began to re-evaluate my experiences as a student in the public school system. I came to the conclusion that while I have had to develop in a sub-par school in need of renovation and an update to the faculty-student relationships, I have not had the experience that Gatto or Freire predicted. My teachers were, for the most part, willing to teach in a method not unlike the Socratic Method of asking and answering questions. I would often speak during these sessions and our class would not always come to any one conclusion and we would have to compromise on a solution together (unlike Freire's belief that all conclusions to a class lecture and their meanings are determined by the teacher).
I think that this is because Oregon attracts a more dedicated group of teachers from all over the country due to the higher standards that Oregon sets for a teaching degree. Because of their dedication too teaching, they might approach an issue in a variety of ways in order to help the students understand and question the information that the teachers are providing, including the discussion of the material by the students. Because of this, we don't have to worry about the quality of our education in Oregon as much as in other states; we only have to worry about how dedicated we are to leartning.

Ryan C.