Reflection: Discussions and readings

This semester’s discussions have really opened my eyes to a number of different topics I never paid much attention to before. I generally consider myself open minded and actively seeking different subject to study. I have a wide range of interests which can make it difficult at times to choose a recreational reading. However, since high school my focus has been almost completely devoted to science based ideas. My biology teacher was one of those teachers that pushed for us to expand our knowledge of the field. He would have us find outside reading and report on what we learned. From that class I discovered how much I liked science. I some how started to shun out all other subject areas because they just were not science. I liked how the Paideia discussions have reawaken my interest in other subjects. It was nice to also have someone that had a lot of previous insight in that subject so I could learn more then just what the reading was conveying. For my reading, I shared a chapter out of a book written by Jonah Lehrer titled “Proust was a Neuroscientist”. This book brings up the notion that science actually started with the arts. It references eight different artists that based their work on scientific theories. Through their work they developed their own theories of how things work. Some of these theories, such as Proust’s theory of mind, are just now being proven. What I enjoy so much about this book is the integration of art with science. As I stated earlier, I believe I have a wide range of interests but I have never really been a fan of the arts. I like playing instruments and you can catch me doodling in my notebooks during study breaks but I could never study the meaning of the arts. I think mostly because I did not understand it so it could not capture my attention. But this book has given me something I can learn about art. Now I can look for the science in the art and the art in science.

The other major thing I enjoyed about these discussions is that I learned a lot more about myself and how I learn. A few of our discussions touched on the educational system (personally I think it is flawed in many ways, but I won’t elaborate on that here). I thought about the structure of my classes and how that correlated to how much I enjoyed the subject. I found the more discussion based the class was the more I looked forward to and studied for that class. It was interesting that other people in my cohort have experienced the same correlation. Discovering how people learn also connects to our Paideia topic of understanding human behavior. The coolest thing about humans and animals is that we are always changing and adapting to our environment. Learning is a key aspect to this adaptation. So understanding how we learn is essential to understanding how we behave.