Today after our individual work we had a visit from the Association of Core Texts representatives, Scott Lee and Richard Kamber. Both great people at having dialogues, they really knew how to lead a dialogue in a large group. They came to us to talk about the importance of studying greek and latin and the importance of going back to the classical books or fundamentals such as Euclid's Elements.
Our conversation began with discussing How to read a book. And we discussed the importance of asking questions to the book and trying to answer it by yourself with your own criteria and ideas. How to read a book is a book where you are learning how to learn. Take in consideration the language that the author is trying to speak to us. A book is like nature it speaks to us in a magical way as well as nature around us. We had a controversy between if a writing speech is a dead thing because you can't have a dialogue with it rather than a spoken dialogue you can ask questions and understand what the author is trying to tell you. After lunch we had a discussion in our groups of Euclid's Elements and we cleared a lot of things up by drawing at the board. We discovered a lot of things of how Euclid wrote the Prologue
0 Comments
Today we started the day with YOGA. I urgently need to start doing exercise or something because I noticed I had so many difficulties doing exercises that before I could do them easily. (It's a shame hehe).
We had tons of work to do for individual work so we had a pretty busy morning, and I love the book of Getting Real it is just a life changing book, I already have given the book to two other people that I'm certain they will enjoy it as well as I did. After lunch we did an exercise of looking at a person right in their eyes without saying a word. It was so fulfilling looking at some people in the eyes, I noticed that some people I really don't know them but I could imagine what their lives are. But other people were just incredible, we could actually have a conversation without speaking. It felt really nice and deep too, at some times I felt like crying or companioned towards the other person. We later had Kant vs. Twain dialogue, it went pretty well and a lot of differences were going around the room. We cleared a lot of definitions that were misunderstood and it helped understand Twain and Kant's essay. The main discussion involves the premises that I have to have my own approval first but what is going to be our own criteria reasoned out or is it going to be because other people have approved myself? When Kyle came we probably had another exercise to practice on but we focused on a problem we encountered today while doing the eyes exercise because we couldn't figure out the procedure that everyone had to take to rotate and be able to look to everyone's eyes at least one. So Kyle helped us put it into a formula which looked like n(n-1)/2. We had an hour and a half to talk about A trip for the handbook retreat and we mentioned a lot of ideas for fundraising so the costs of the trip would lower. It was amazing listening to everyone's ideas. Today it was my turn to lead the morning meeting. And it felt good to have everyone's attention focused on me and I noticed everyone was very respectful and was very concentrated into what was I saying. I shared a video of Neil de Grasse because lately I've been so intrigued in the cosmos and how we are part of the universe and many times we are not aware of the beauty around us and just give for granted many things that are worth watching. We continued the day with individual work, it feels like work is piling up and time is running reaaally fast!!! At lunch we had the Escuela de Negocios staff presentation and they provided pizza for us. After they present each other and full our tummies we showed them the Corn Hole game and they loved it. We had so much fun and we made teams MPC vs EN, and unfortunately we had a tie. It was very nice having them show some support to us and letting us know that they are there whenever we need them or any doubt we have. We later got serious and divide into our groups and discussed Euclid Elements. It was much easier having a smaller group discussed each definition than having a lot of people trying to understand something. I think I'm more confident with Euclid than the previous two classes. We debrief our day and We started the week with a boost of positivism. First because Isa shared a very inspiring video from Holstee Manifesto which manifest that we should share our passion and let others share their with us, and enjoy every second of what you're doing which many times we give for granted and miss new feelings and sensations. Afterwards Mabe shared with us the second video which is criticism that many times we are said to keep the truth to ourselves in order to keep the things running the same way. We later on had greek with Moris Polanco, and this time we practice our pronunciation and also spent a good amount of time saying the Holy Father in greek. (I'm trying to learn it for next week). After lunch we played a game called "Corn Hole" it was donated to us by Juanma Bonifasi. It was a lot of fun and we shared a lot of laughter, fun and cheers.The game consisted in throwing a bag of corn into a hole with 20ft distance (sadly of 5 tries I could only managed to enter just one time). Later on we had a discussion of Getting Real. It was such a great experience because Bert was not in the circle we probably felt more comfortable meanwhile. We instead of talking about the book because not everyone was on the same page we practice a exercise that Susan Campbell writes about, it consisted that we said something that we noticed and a second comment that was fictional to a person in front of us. We did this for about 5 minutes, it was very hard at the beginning because we didn't wanted to hurt anyone's feelings. After all, we came back to the circle and practice saying in front of everyone else randomly. At first it was not very real, but all of a sudden the things changed and we started saying the things that affected us the most of other people that were constantly doing something that annoyed us. It was a very sincere and honest conversation between us the pioneers, that everyone felt so good after finally saying the things that were bothering us. After that Kyle came and we continued practicing the pocket programs, I felt that I understood everything more clear and also we started solving a new problem that is in www.projecteuler.net and it was very complicated but there was not enough time to finish it. We then continued watching the film of "Educación Prohíbida". The role of what the teacher suppossed to do in school was explained and many times the teachers are doing or acting in a arrogant way because they were form in the same system, so they don't know how anything else may work. My sister is studying to become a kindergarden teacher and I'm very excited for her to watch this film and probably change the way she sees education. I'm constantly eager to find ways to change the education here in Guatemala and El Salvador, because many times the budget for public education is so high but still there are a lot of children left unattended and many times receive a very medium education and later on join gangs. But with this system children will go to school eager to learn differently and in a more functional way. Today it was Gaby's turn to lead the morning meeting. We discussed the 16 habits of mind which are tools to work on a group. Bert's comment of "adulhood" being just a myth it kept me thinking that many times we are trying to behave as grown ups behave but they're just putting a mask and behaving as society wants them to behave. We had a Skype conference with Andrew Humphries who is in New Delhi, India and studied in St. John's College and appreciates Euclid's Elements. At first I might've started hating the book because it was very hard but as I heard Andrew talking about how it is the foundation elements of understanding the concepts that we think we know already. He gave us some good advices to enjoy and learn Euclid. Later on in the day we read the "Allegory of the Cave" and at first it was very hard to understand the meaning but after hearing someone explain it, it made more sense. We also started watching the documental film "Educación Prohíbida". I had so many insights while watching the movie, I wanted to go back to my school and point out the mistakes they're continually making and repeating during the years. But it's not only in schools, but in home, universities, colleges etc. Everyday I'm more thankful to be in such a different environment where I can learn things that will actually help me during my life and become a better person. Today I started reading the book "Getting Real" by Susan Campbell, and from now I can see that after reading this book I will become a better person. At the morning meeting we discussed in fund raising and came up with a lot of ideas to fund our trips. After the morning meeting today we started working on our autobiographies. And it took me several minutes to know what to write. But I started on the basic with my birth and started writing about my life along the years (at least what I could remember). And we shared it with a classmate and I shared my story with Lucia Canjura, and she shared it with me. It was very funny at the beginning because we both shared so many things in common. And after hearing her say my story I noticed that no one else can write your own story but yourself.
Today apparently I realized I have been tying my shoes the WRONG WAY, Lucia Canjura, though us the ideal way to tie our shoe laces thanks to a Ted talk she watched. At the individual work I felt I had no time to finish the bunch of work at my desk. I started reading the first two chapters of Trivium and I'm obsessed with it, since the prologue I knew I would love it. It is because it is explaining the importance of studying liberal arts and how in helps you work out the inside of oneself to the outside. We also discussed Euclid's Elements, MY GOSH THIS IS COMPLICATED!!! No kidding. We had to take several breaks because it was too much going on everyone else's brain hehe. Bert gave us a very wise advise that was "forget everything you think you know". Exactly we are here to learn again from the beginning because we are having this conversation with Euclid that had all this ideas before scientific method, algebra, etc. so in order to understand him we should just imagine we don't have a previous education.
This day was quite different in many ways. From the beginning I forgot my agenda at home and had nothing else to write the documentation. It made me realized that I need to be more prepared to come to class. It was a fun day, as the day started and my peers entered the room they were sharing their experiences they had making the greek food for us. We worked individually and accomplished many tasks I had left behind. At lunch we shared what we brought for everyone, there were greek pizza, hummus, a delicious dessert based on rice, olives, orange juice, and an exquisite feeta cheese mix made by Mabe. After lunch a couple of us stayed in the table just chit chatting and getting to know us better and making fun plans for the days we don't come to MPC. At Performance Arts things went very spontaneous and I think that was the whole beauty of it, Mabe played her cello, and sang a couple of songs that were really inspiring for us to take the decision that we wanted to learn to play an instrument. Javier Tabush came up with a game and it took us a lot of courage and concentration to play it, in my opinion I think it was the day that I've laughed the most at MPC, it was very relaxing to work after having a fun break.We had a visit from Acton Academy, Daniel Herbruger, talked a little bit about his life and decisions he had made along the past few years that had completely changed his life. He shared his biking experience across the U.SA. and also the journalism career drop out and now he is a "teacher" at Acton. It left me thinking that when you keep true to yourself and your believes that no matter what, things are going to perfectly come together. Kyle came up later at night an we discussed to stories one by Samuel Beckett (Sixteen Stones) and the other by Robert Graves (The Abominable Mr. Gunn). Both stories were for problem solving and the several conclusions one can come up with a procedure methodology.
Went through the morning meeting logistics. Talked about having an MPC journal to handout to schools, teachers, people at UFM etc. Define that we need an MPC logo.
Learn by the hard way to work on groups and communicate strategies for everyone to follow and help divide the work. There 6 themes in which we will learn at MPC. Those are: Thinking processes. Physical Process, Artificial process, Complex processes, Process of Inquiry and last Production Process (entrepreneurship). We will go to Paris to meet with the university which is doing about the same as we are. We need money for this and came up with several fundraising ideas. Having a theatre, gala dinner, network with people with money, shirts with Michael Polanyi quotes, sell bracelets, food, have conferences. Started reading Taming the Infinite. What people often look for is to seek truth and understand it. Look to reality as a whole and have an unity of knowledge and connect it with many things. Everything has a connection. Had our first math class with Kyle. And went trough Gauss formula. Writing down numbers gave the initative to many people to start expressing their language by writing. Started the process to shape and put documentation in paper into the web. Read an essay of Mark Twain on how people who had their own opinions gets punished or risks their survival for expressing themselves. We watched a video of Vida, libertad y conciencia were we learned how is to be a sheep or a lion and that many times we blame other people or things other but ourselves when it's our responsibility to assume the consequences. Also we watched Fermat's Last Theorem and it amazed me how one person can be really interested in mathematics and invest all his time and life into it just to find an answer. It really inspired me to pursue my dreams and view math in a different way in a way where questions can be proofed by our work and knowledge. |
AuthorDocumentation of an MPC pioneer Archives
May 2013
Categories
All
|