This week, we’re going to continue reading mentor texts related to education. We’re also going to start our work with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” a text that will challenge us but that will help us think further about education.
Week 3: Understanding the term “Education Narrative” and Annotating Texts
- Dates: Wednesday, 9/13 and Monday, 9/18
- Meeting Info: This course meets in person for 100 minutes twice per week, Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:00-1:40pm, in Namm 602A. By the end of each week, I will post an agenda that will outline the next week’s work. It will include instructions for you and links to readings, discussion questions, and other work. We will work on developing community both in our classroom and in our online written community.
Objectives
- To read education narratives and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave; to begin Project #1: Education Narrative
To Do Before Week 3
Just in case you haven’t already, please:
- Add your introduction to the Introductions discussion
- Read the ENG 1101 Project 1 Assignment
- Finish the Values and Goals writing activity from Monday 9/11–either bring the paper copy to class or post it in the Values and Goals discussion
- Catch up on any readings or discussions you’ve missed–you can review the Week 1 Agenda and the Week 2 Agenda to see what we covered.
To-Do This Week
Wednesday, 9/13: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Texts
- Personal Narrative: “Maybe I Could Save Myself By Writing” by José Olivarez
- Dialogue: “Allegory of the Cave” (Book VII) from The Republic, by Plato.
- CONTENT WARNING: the Plato text and related videos refer to disturbing situations, in this case representing people who are imprisoned, maltreated, and tortured.
- Blog post: “Dark and Light: Practicing Balance—and Countering Racism—in Metaphors” by Alex Kapitan
- Video: “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” by Alex Gendler
- Video: “The Cave: An Adaptation of Plato’s Allegory in Clay” by bullheadent
- Video: “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” by Philosophy Vibe
- Writing Resource Video “Understanding Genre Awareness.”
Writing
- Add your short responses to the discussion on dark and the discussion on light before class on Wednesday, 9/13. We’ll use these lists in our in-class discussion.
In Class
Education Narratives
- Reading and annotating “Maybe I Could Save Myself By Writing” by José Olivarez together
- What stands out? what points do we connect to? what questions do we have?
- How is this an education narrative? What is an education narrative?
- some history of the author’s background
- a quotation–or some language that’s specific to the author’s background or discourse community
- timeline of education
- how you feel about your education
- progression from bad feelings to good–could easily follow a different pattern
- tells stories
- first person
- refers to other people/texts/authority/research/knowledge
- be specific
- might end with resolution, or a call to action, or an anticipated shift. What is the present, or what do we anticipate for the future?
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
- What do we think about when we think of light and dark?
- Dark: depression; ying and yang, negative, night, fear, dark and brooding, tall dark and handsome, scary, horror, dark blue, dark cloud,
- Light: ying and yang, optimistic, positive, happiness, lighthearted, freedom, hope, brilliance, come into the light, see the light
- education: smart, passionate, goals, knowledge, educated, growth, stress, failure, tedious, difficult, procrastination, overwhelming, future
- What difference do words make?
- What do we think of when we think about education? What does it mean to be educated, or to seek education?
- Why read difficult texts?
- Let’s read Plato’s text together:
- One of the texts we’re working with this week is from Plato’s The Republic. It’s called the “Allegory of the Cave.” It’s a difficult text, but one that is broadly applicable to life, to learning, to society, etc. It’s part of the Core Books at CUNY project I referred to in the syllabus. It’s hard, but something we can work through together. The videos can also help us through the text. What’s important here is that we find something that we can work with, not that we understand every part of the text. We’re coming into it in the middle of things, and we’re using it to help us think about our own educations so that we can write interesting, powerful things. This is not a philosophy class, and I don’t expect you to digest the text as though it were a philosophy course. But if this kind of writing, or these kinds of issues speak to you, please let it take you where you want it to.
- CONTENT WARNING: the Plato text and related videos are about people who are imprisoned, maltreated, and tortured.
- Reading and annotating this Google Doc of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
- Reading aloud
- sketching, focusing, reacting: What’s a moment in the text that had an impact on you, stayed with you, or was meaningful for you? Why?
- Here are three short videos for Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”:
- start with “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” by Alex Gendler for a good overview of this section of the text and the philosophy behind it:
- this one , “The Cave: An Adaptation of Plato’s Allegory in Clay” by Bullheadent, is more of a reading of the text:
- and “The Allegory of the Cave Explained” by Philosophy Vibe that might help us understand it better:
If you find additional videos that you think would be useful for our discussion of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” please share them in your comment.
Monday, 9/18: Education Narratives
Texts:
- Opinion Essay: “I Am Being Pushed Out of One of the Last Public Squares, the Library” by Emily St. James
- Opinion Essay: “Architecture Needs a Culture Shift” by Michael Caton
- Blog Post: “Dark and Light: Practicing Balance—and Countering Racism—in Metaphors“
Writing:
- Spend some time freewriting in response to our Project 1 brainstormed questions to help draft Project 1, and share your work in the Freewriting discussion
- Continue putting our readings in dialogue with your ideas for your education narrative in our Connecting to our readings discussion
In Class:
- For Project 1, you’re writing an education narrative of your own that tells a story about a meaningful learning experience, whether in school or in your life. Your experience might be about a class, a text you read, a space where you like to learn, or even a mentor who had an impact on you. Let’s ask some questions to get us started.
- Freewrite: Where do you read? Where do you do your work for school? Where do you learn? What would be ideal?
- library: a safe place, quiet, different lives
- at home: in your room, at the table
- cafe
- park
- at college: cafeteria, seats in the passageways, computer labs
- on the train/bus
- at a desk
- by yourself/near others/with other
- Reacting and responding to the readings
- “I Am Being Pushed Out of One of the Last Public Squares, the Library” by Emily St. James
- mentions specific books, includes details, tells a story; identity
- what else stands out in this essay?
- what other of our mentor texts do we connect to?
- Metaphors:
- What metaphors does Plato use to describe education and knowledge? Are these new, or have you already encountered them elsewhere? What do you think about these metaphors for education and knowledge? What other mentor texts include metaphors, and what do those metaphors do for the text? How does reading Alex Kapitan’s “Dark and Light: Practicing Balance—and Countering Racism—in Metaphors” shape your thoughts on the metaphors for education we have encountered in Plato’s text as well as others from this semester? What is a metaphor you might want to add to your education narrative?
- library as public square
- education is the key to success (is it locked?); education is an investment in your future; students as empty bank accounts; a painful journey; a movement toward enlightenment; understanding college/seeing things differently; education in a system vs freedom to learn what you want
- Work on Project 1: brainstorm, take notes, freewrite, draft, etc
Free Write:
In general I feel like everyone reads and learns everywhere they go. Outside there’s always a sign or quote to read. Also, experiencing new things and finding new people is another way to learn. So I’d say there’s no specific place to learn honestly. When I really read because I want or have to, it’s usually done in my room. It’s the safest place to do work without any distractions and simply where most of my work gets done.