Return to your brainstormed topic(s) for your own educational narrative and think about how they relate to the experience of Plato’s prisoners and/or to the freed prisoner. Write a paragraph discussing any connections between Plato’s allegory and your own experience. These connections might reflect a positive experience, a negative experience, or both.
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Course Description: A course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques including use of the library. Demanding readings assigned for classroom discussion and as a basis for essay writing
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Ursula C. Schwerin Library
New York City College of Technology, C.U.N.Y
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One of the time where I had an educational experience that was similar to Plato’s allegory was when I was learning the processes of computers. The way this experience when was during the time when I was with my family members are we were both discussing how to fix a computer-related issue. My family member was debating towards me that his way of resolving the issue would be a much better option that the one that I had, whereas I stood to my belief that my methodology would work since I viewed his as risky. My family member then went along with his plan and started to work on resolving the issue. Without say I was a bit nervous that something would go wrong but it turned out that the issue was resolved and everything was fixed. I was in complete shock that his method work because I have conducted tons of research into resolving the issue and he did it as if it was nothing. He then too,d me everything that he did and I ended up learning new things that I thought I would never had learned since no other website had his method. From that experience I have learned to keep myself open to new things that I could learn instead of sticking to one thing only.
I believe that in terms of Plato’s allegory, I would be the prisoners. I found my method of passing my classes, and decided that I had no reason to strive for more. I was content with only getting enough of a grade to pass, that I rejected and ignored most assistance that other people want to give me. Whether the assistance they wanted to give would have been any help to me, we would never know because I decided that it was unnecessary for me.
The connection between Plato’s allegory and my own experience is that I was trapped in one way of learning. The different strategies I was using to write my essays were how my new teacher expected the essays to be. I had to learn a whole new way on how to write from what I was used to. Just like the prisoner who was let free, he saw strange things he believed that they weren’t even real. since in his mind, he would see them walk past since he wasn’t able to actually feel them he thought they were fake. He started to think negatively about himself since it was an environment he was used to. Therefore this goes back to my educational narrative since I was learning a different format of how to write.
I can relate to the prisoners in my narrative because I was isolated from the world and got comfortable in my own bubble at home. I was barely ever outside and when I was allowed to go outside and all my friends were asking me to go out, I denied it. I did that because I was content with my routines and lifestyle compared to before when I would do bad shit with my friends outside. I chose to stay remote the next school year and didn’t go back to my old ways outside.
My own experience and Plato’s allegory relate because in a way how the prisoners were locked up and only focused on what they saw which was the shadows that passed by, that’s some what my case how I only focused on what I can see and what I understood. But just like when the prisoner was freed he was introduced to new things like the light and the sun shining on his face, the fact that shadows are shadows of actual objects, so that was his way of learning. So when I’m introduced to new things I observe and see why the reasoning behind what I’m learning. Also in the fact that when the prisoner came back to tell the others what he saw he was fought back with violence, a lot of people tend to do that were they don’t believe something until it’s either done to them or the person has proof.
If I were to connect the topic of my educational narrative to Plato’s allegory of education, I would say that I’m the prisoners who face nothing but the wall because when my friend got shot that was all I knew and the only thing that was running through my mind was why? Why did it have to happen to him? Why did he have to be there in that specific moment? What was the reason or lesson behind his death? It is still something that I have a hard time understanding today but as time goes on it does get a little bit clearer & better each day. However, I’m slowly becoming the person who was freed & out of the cave because I started to understand & learn that everything in life happens for a reason. Regardless if I know what that reason is or not, things play out like the way that they do for a reason. & that there is also more to life than just money & materialistic things. & that what matters most is you, you’re health & that you should always be grateful for the gift of life because anything can happen & you can be gone by tomorrow. Then everything else wouldn’t matter because you’re not here.
In Plato there are two key elements that show his philosophy. shadows on the wall these represent the limitations of sensory perception and the nature of the physical world. The sunlight outside the cave this symbolizes the quest for true knowledge beyond sensory experiences. Plato uses these details to illustrate the contrast between the illusory world of appearances and the pursuit of deeper truths.
Both Plato’s allegory and my personal experience touch upon the theme of perspective and the constraints that our world places upon us. While we may not be physically confined to a cave like the prisoners in Plato’s tale, we are still restricted by our perception of reality. Our outlook is molded by the many ideas and experiences we encounter throughout our lives. As individuals, we have the option to either accept what we know or actively seek out fresh and diverse perspectives.
In Plato there are two key elements that show his philosophy. shadows on the wall these represent the limitations of sensory perception and the nature of the physical world. The sunlight outside the cave this symbolizes the quest for true knowledge beyond sensory experiences. Plato uses these details to illustrate the contrast between the illusory world of appearances and the pursuit of deeper truths.I think I can relate to this through my own education because when we was talking about the other day how I was under the illusion on education was just a bias of academic classes until I got to high school and seen what education really was.
A similar experience I had to plato prisoners was when I left nyc for the first time and I realized that all of America isn’t a big city like nyc and it changed how I looked at the rest of the country because I don’t like the suburbs and the country side. It was also kind of hard to believe that there are only a handful of cities that are in America and none of them are like nyc.
Something negative that I learned was how food is prepared at most fast food chains. The burgers at McDonald’s, for example, the patties for the burgers are all premade in batches. So they are made to just last for an extremely long time without changing shape or becoming inedible. I saw this video around a year ago that showed how a McDonald’s burger didn’t change over the course of a few weeks or months. I’m not sure if it was edible at the end of the “test”, but it shows how many preservatives are in the patties. I think it’s common knowledge that they aren’t good for your health.
An experience that is similar to the one PLATON relates is when I was a child of about 6 years old and I thought that my town was huge and in order to visit another we had to go through enormous mountains and ravines. I thought this because when we had to go to the neighboring town, my point of view when I was a child was that of passing mountains and ravines. but when I grew up they made a bridge to make access to the other town easier and when I crossed it for the first time I could see that what always caused that was only a small ravine and a small climb and that it will not be more than a few minutes to go town to town and that my house was actually only about 10-15 minutes away. This led me to open my mind and question the things I knew at that time and my knowledge was being questioned.
One positive experience I’ve had was using the advice of others to improve my life. I was a hardhead, and I refused to listen to them because the people giving me advice weren’t even middle class. So I don’t think their advice will help me if they can’t use their own advice to benefit themselves before giving it to others.
An experience similar to Plato’s allegory happened in middle school when I used to slack off a lot and not get my work done. Because of that, I got bad grades, which caused my parents to talk to me repeatedly about how I had to focus on school and get my grades up, yet I was too stubborn to listen to them, but eventually, I started to listen to them and use their advice to do better and get my grades up.