Theory of Knowledge Journal
Rationale:
To ensure that this class is not just another academic subject, devoid of contact with the “real
world,” I am asking that you keep a bound journal where you jot down outside references to
what you hear and discuss in class. Do not use notebook paper or a lined composition
book. You will value your thoughts more when housed in a permanent binding. Perhaps it
will survive
for you to reread in later life.
The
Subject Matter:
If you read a book, newspaper, or magazine article that triggers an association, describe it in your notebook. If you overhear or participate in a conversation
that is intellectually or spiritually stimulating, recount it on paper. Any thought or insight relevant to ToK is acceptable: TV, movies, music, theater,
friends, church/synagogue/or temple, ads, travel, other classes, sports, viewing of art, anything in or outside of class that seems related to problems
of knowing. The object is to create a dialogue with yourself where
you can question the world and propose your
why of things.
The
Format of the Journal Entry:
Journal entries need not be all narrative. Poems, dialogues, and drawings are acceptable; however, each journal entry must always clearly explain
why the subject is pertinent to TOK and it must be dated. If I don’t clearly understand the relevance of your entry to TOK, the particular entry
will receive no credit. Remember, you are always dealing with problems of knowing.
Five journal entries will be collected at the end of the 7th week of each of the first three nine weeks for a total of 15 entries for the entire year. Since
the fourth nine weeks is so filled with senior
responsibilities, I will not require a journal submission.
To
aid you in selecting topics that beg for journal discussion, I have provided
the following suggestions:
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· Pay attention to instances of logical or informal fallacies occurring around you.
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· Describe instances in which your sense perceptions influenced your reactions to your environment.
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· Describe arguments that occurred because people defined their terms differently.
What were the different
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· Think of current events from a ToK framework; a recent example might be, “ What are the issues that divide Muslim extremists and
American policy makers? Who has truth and right on their side? Find related newspaper clippings on both sides of issue.
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Take your journal to other classes (science, history, math, etc.) and jot down ToK related issues. Look for connections or discrepancies
between or among disciplines.
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· If you have visited an historical or art museum, what caught your eye? Aesthetically what did you find pleasing and why? What, to you,
is good art, literature, music, architecture, dance, poetry, etc. ?
Grading
of TOK Journals
Your entries will be kept private. Unless you desire to bring them up during class discussion, your journal is a shared “dialogue” between t
he two of us. I will write comments and ask questions while grading your journal entries, but as long as the five entries are at least one page
long, are dated with a subject heading, and have clearly explained connections to TOK, you will receive an A for this portion of your grade.
I do not want to see, however, five entries dated the night before your journal is due. Spread out your entries over the course of the seven-week
period.
Extra Benefit: When you write your ToK paper, you may find your journal entries have provided stimulus for further discussion. Who knows,
you may decide to keep a journal after the class concludes merely for
pleasure. Many of my former
students do just that.
Below
you will find examples of different styles of journal entries.
A Journal Entry that incorporates text and drawing
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A journal entry that provides a response to a newspaper article:
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Human Suffering and Political Inequality
I read a disturbing article today. They found 39 Dominican Republic migrants who were reported lost at sea. 55 others died. It is the survivors who tell the tale.
After two weeks at sea, an air of desperation and then terror gripped the people. When rations disappeared, some survived with nothing more
than a coconut to eat.Others died, not from starvation, but severe dehydration. One woman died after she was brutally attacked for her
breast milk. A few immigrants, after witnessing
this and filled with abject despair, jumped from
the boat into the dark waters, never to be seen again. One of the Dominican
survivors, Ballano, later explained why they
had set off on such a perilous journey. “I had no future there,” he flatly
stated. There was no work in the Dominican
Republic
where unemployment is at 16%. There was no way for him to feed his family.
How can a country allow the rich to prosper while the poor “lead lives of quiet desperation”? Even here in America, in Miami,
there are the forgotten poor who seem little more than an embarrassment to our democratic ideas. Must there always be the rich
and the poor? I wonder if a classless society is possible?
A
journal entry that provides a student reflection on an abstract idea:
Morayo Faleyimu
2
September 2001
The Nature of Time
Recently I read a fantastic book by Alan Lightman called Einstein’s Dreams. It was a series of vignettes based on Einstein’s theory
of relativity. In each piece, time had a different quality. My favorite story was about a world in which time slowed down at higher
altitudes.
Once the people discovered this, they began to construct houses on stilts and then on mountains. Social classes developed according
to one’s altitude. Those on the very top shunned those who were below. The people most pitied, however, were those who refused
to worry about time and passed leisurely lives at sea level. Eventually, the people forgot why living on mountains was so important.
They convinced themselves that the thin air was good, as were their strict diets. Ironically these time-obsessed people looked bony
and old before their time.
Earlier this week in ToK, we were discussing time. What is time? We asked ourselves. We eventually decided that time was an
invented method used to organize the passage of events. Without such understood terms, it would be difficult to discuss events
that have
happened, are happening, or are going
to happen.
is an integral part of society. In contrast, places like the Caribbean and Latin America do not pay such attention to time. Meetings
begin late, city clocks are not synchronized, and the people take a more relaxed view of life. American time is also more shortsighted
than others. Native American tribes, i.e. the Iroquois, were noted for considering the effects of all their actions to the 7th generation of their
offspring. Perhaps if we examined this view and used it, we could prevent many of the problems that currently plague our country:
overcrowding in cities, pollution of the
environment, loss of native flora and fauna.
The greatest problem with time is that people fear it. They live by the clock and die by the clock. Strangely, they become slaves
to their own invention. We stop asking questions and just frantically act out the motions of life. In another philosophy book I read,
Sophie’s World, Albert told his protégée how we are little people living in a rabbit. When we are young, we stand on the tips of the fur
and gaze around in wonder. However, as the years pass, we burrow deeper and deeper into the rabbit, forgetting to marvel at the stars.
Only philosophers maintain this childlike
sense of curiosity and always ask the eternal question: why?
Morayo Faleyimu
