Words and Rules Dialogue 5? And some Debriefing – D59

We were supposed to have a dialogue on Words and Rules, and I say suppose because only Chacho, Kata, Carmen, and Mabe (although not completely) read, and the rest of us didn’t read so the “dialogue” was more of a time of silence. Only a few comments were produced by Chacho, Carmen, and Kata, so after Pablito dropped his Coca-Cola (great ice-breaker though), Bert made us realize that the ones that didn’t read should go to the outer circle and so we did. Still the dialogue was weak and little interesting. I admit part of the fault. After it, Bert told us something important of Pinker’s theory, which we are going to revise later, but I think nobody understood him because of the language.

The debriefing was ok, we talked about the Convivio and other stuff I don’t quite remember. 

Euclid’s Last Class for the Semester – D59

This was our last class of Euclid. We started working in our small groups and in mine, we decided to first set our goals and dates to work on vacations. We are going to get together next week on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday in order to review and learn all the first 30 propositions. This way we are going to be able to fulfill the general goal of reaching to demonstrate these propositions by February 4^th. We are meeting at Isa’s house.

Dialogue between Edward Wilson and Socrates? Chacho’s Morning Meeting – D59

For this morning meeting, we did something unusual. Chacho’s activity consisted in stating some conditions and then writing a dialogue about it. The conditions were that the dialogue must be between Edward O. Wilson and Socrates, in the moon, during Christmas season, and they would talk about the Rubrics of the MPC’ers. It was a great way to start the day with some creativity and imagination. We only had 10 minutes although it was more like 15 minutes, but anyways I didn’t finish it. I would eventually finish it because it was a very good exercise. 

Here is with what I came up with…

HTML Fail and Debriefing… kind of – D58

So, we (with Isa) are done with our web app but we wanted to code some HTML to put it nicely decorated. To our misfortune, we fail terrible doing the HTML code and now the app doesn’t run (we can reverse it to the original, simple one). We are figuring it out how to code HTML in Cloud9, but it’s kind of difficult, nevertheless I’ll tell you when it’s nice and pretty and working.

During debriefing, everybody appeared to be brain dead so it was not so interesting. We talked a little about the day, also about the organizations of the Convivio, and of the last day of this semester.

“Self-Reliance”, Emerson, Dialogue 6 – D58

There are few things better to do at the MPC than read Emerson in the Jardín Ayau, sitting on the grass and reading it aloud. Instead of doing performing arts, we decided to keep reading Self-Reliance by Emerson. In this dialogue we discussed the things we value, the nature of observation, the scientific ethics, and materialism. The most important quotes we talked about were the followings:

“Yet they (material things) all are his, suitors for his notice, petitioners to his faculties that they will come out and take possession. The picture waits for my verdict: it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claims to praise.”

• Things related to this quote: “value what you value”, nature of observation, Polanyi: “Science has a moral dimension.”. 

“…it (the popular fable of the sot and the duke) symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason, and finds himself a true prince.”

• There are people, like Socrates, who we think of them as “gods”, but we forget they were once humans who have awaken. 

“Who is the Trustee? What is the aboriginal Self, on which universal reliance may be grounded? What is the nature and power of that science-baffling star, without parallax, without calculable elements, which shoots a ray of beauty even into trivial and impure actions, if the least mark of independence appear?”

• Here, Emerson puts in question materialism; something that we are still questioning in the 21^st century. 

“Apology”, Plato, Dialogue 4 – D58

At 9:30 a.m. we continued reading The Apology by Plato. It was an interesting dialogue where we discussed the true meaning of humility and whether or not and why was Socrates humble. We also talked about the meaning of death.

Here are my notes of the dialogue and also some intriguing questions:

Dialogue 4 (10/12/12)

• Fear of death
• When we consider death there are a set of assumptions that don’t have justification.
• The only thing we can say is that we don’t know what death is.
• What is death?
• Risk aversion
• Does correlation tell us causality?
• If the future, by definition, is unpredictable, why don’t we live in fear?
• Pablito: We maintain a structure of beliefs, expectations, and imperfect information.
• Your actions are based on faith, well or not well founded.

• Socrates’ claim
• He doesn’t know, but he hasn’t made a claim that we cannot know.
• The notion of the scientific ethic is that of constant doubt, an openness of refutation.
• Religion is the only aspect where there are absolute truths.

• Wilson sees the universe as something of the same matter in which we can study all as the same
• Contrary to human action, anti-Austrian.

• Socrates the gadfly
• His teaching is annoying to the state.
• Jesus is another example.

• What is humility?
• Understanding that you don’t know everything.
• Capacity to recognize our errors and mistakes.
• Openness to learning. It doesn’t mean you don’t have expectations.
• Was Jesus open to learning?
• Teaching by questions and parables.

• Socrates: Do you have the right to judge me before judging yourself?

Kata’s Morning Meeting – D58

Kata’s morning meeting consisted of two parts. The first one was that we must draw a fireplace, four Christmas stockings above the fireplace, a Christmas tree, and a basket full of candy canes. All of these must be drawn in a paper on top of our heads. You really don’t want to see how that went… The second part of was to get into pairs, back to back, and one was in charge of describing a Christmas object Kata gave us and the other must draw it, and vice versa. That didn’t went that bad. Cool activity! 

Remedial Day… NOT, I’m sick ☹

Today it was another remedial day, but I didn’t go to the MPC because I wanted to recover from my flu and rest to get better. Sorry pals, it’s for the good of all of us!

Don Quijote Dialogue 2 (with Amable) – D57

I have been a “little” sick and my nose was dropping like a faucet, so I didn’t enjoy too much the Don Quijote dialogue. Today Karen joined us and brought Manchego cheese, quince jelly, and crackers (very thoughtful and Spaniard). Ana Isa also joined us for the dialogue. We discussed chapters IV and VI.

Later, we went to see the new MPC space and to visualize what we would like it to be and make a wish list. After that, it was lunchtime and I went home since I was sick. 

Majo’s Morning Meeting – D57

Today’s facilitator for the morning meeting was Majo. She showed us this campaign called Acción MOB, originated in Guatemala that tries to create consciousness on the power of each one of us to change the people that surround us one action at a time. It’s really cool! We also watched some videos, all of them very motivational. Here are the following links:

Facebook Page of Acción MOB, Youtube Channel of Acción MOB, Life Vest Inside: Kindness Boomerang, MOVE, EAT, LEARN

Also, just for you to have fun, I’ll leave this video called El Estilo de Peter la Anguila. It’s hilarious!

The Web App Ran! and Debriefing – D56

We did it! Along with Isa, we created our first web app called Euclid’s Sorting Hat. The app finally ran on a webpage and now the next step is to edit it and put it nice using HTML. We are still learning how to use this code and we found some trouble doing so, but Kyle is going to help us this week I think.

Later, we had our debriefing of the day. Nothing really interesting happened. Carla joined us for this part of the day.

By the way, before programming class we participated in an activity of ice breaking and to know each other in order to give feedback to Wayne Leighton and Lissa Henkel for the Antigua Forum of next year. It was ok.

Emerson singing “Deck the Halls”– D56

Ok, so the title is a little misleading. What I refer to is that on performing arts we sang Deck the Halls, practicing for our Christmas carol. We recorded it and when listening to it we found out we sing awful haha.

Then, we read and discussed some Emerson’s Self-Reliance. We talked about the consistency of being genuine with yourself and your actions, and of not being afraid of not being consistent with your actions per se as long as they are genuine to you. Scorn the appearances! This is the most important note I wrote: “Be consistent in doing the right thing, if it’s genuine, you’ll be consistent from the distance, you’ll have honor.”

Consilience Dialogue 5 – D56

For this dialogue I must admit that I didn’t read, but it made good interjections. Most of all we discussed epigenetic rules. I have to say that the dialogue was a little slow so I lost some interest in it. I don’t think it was too good since it was a little superficial.

Morning Meeting by Bert? Improv! – D56

This morning Bert was going to facilitate the meeting, but since he has been sick (rumor says that he has pneumonia) we facilitated as a group. First we watched some videos and wait for the other because we were only 8, and then only three more arrived later and we discussed a quote Bert gave us. We changed the method of the attendance sheet, so now everyone is responsible for putting his or her name on the respective column and that way we will know who's absent.

These are the videos we watched for today's morning meeting:

TED2012 remixed, 60 Second Adventures in Economics (combined), The History of Nikola Tesla, The History of Thomas Edison, and The History of Che Guevara.

We also discussed this quote, first in pairs and then as a group.

“…(As a public school teacher) I teach the lesson of dependency. Good people wait for a teacher to tell them what to do. This is the most important lesson of all, that we must wait for other people, better trained than ourselves, to make the meaning of our lives…We’ve built a way of life that depends on people doing what they are told because they don’t know any other way.”

- John Taylor Gatto

On Time... And New Method

The Crime of the Zebra

Words and Rules D2 (Ch. 3, 4, 5) and Debriefing – D55

The day didn’t look to good after a discussion like the one on Euclid, until our dialogue of Words and Rules. We were a small group, I think 12, and we had a very good dialogue. We respected the rubrics, asked genuine questions, were profound with the text, and had a great interaction of ideas. I didn’t take notes, but I recorded it. One of the most important things we discussed was the distinction between the theory developed by Chomsky and Halle (generative phonology, rules rule, rationalist, rules), and the theory of Rumelhart and McClelland (there are no rules, empiricism, words). Another important point is what Steven Pinker and Prince proposes according to these two theories:

“Prince and I have proposed a hybrid in which Chomsky and Halle are basically right about regular inflection and Rumelhart and McClelland are basically right about irregular inflection. Our proposal is simply the traditional words-and-rules theory with a twist. Regular verbs are computed by a rule that combines a symbol for a verb stem with a symbol for the suffix. Irregular verbs are pairs of words retrieved from the mental dictionary, a part of memory. Here is the twist: Memory is not a list of unrelated slots, like RAM in a computer, but is associative, a bit like the Rumelhart-McClelland pattern associator memory. Not only are words linked to words, but bits of words are linked to bits of words.” Page 117-118.

Euclid? Big Discussion – D55

Everything appeared to be normal, just a regular Euclid class, until Ingrid mentioned a new standard calling for exact precision on our drawings, making them with previous propositions. She tried to make proposition 4, but didn’t succeed in doing so, showing that that exercise is not practical in the future propositions. We did agree that we would do them as precise as possible using our tools like the compass. The discussion evolved into finding a solution for a better learning process of Euclid. What we concluded is that we should divide the class into three groups, chosen by affinity, and to have standards for all of us for presenting and documenting the propositions, but each group will have its own rubrics and objectives, although the general objective for everyone is to finish up to proposition 30 for this semester. My group is Pablito, Alejo, Gabbi, Chacho, and Isa. This is our rubric:

We also talked about excuses and “getting real”, and how we have been interacting as a group and giving each other feedback. There were different views on the topic, some (Gabbi, Alejo, and some other I don’t remember) were saying we should have a third person, like a moderator or psychologist to mediate with each of us, and others (Carmen, Lucía, Kata, and some others) were saying we don’t need that and that it should be a personal approach with each other, that it has to be within us and not to wait for other person. I agreed with both sides by saying that the change and proactivity to solve problems comes within us, and that it could help having a workshop on how to work better as a group. I also tried to keep calm and mediate the opposite views, trying to reach an agreement on what should we do next as a group. I think I did a good job doing this and proposing solutions to these problems. At the end, we advanced in our organization and I take something positive of the discussion.

Morning Meeting by Alejo – D55

This morning I woke up with a terrible lower back pain that I assume it was because of yesterday’s physical activity. Bad call on my behalf. I was almost decided to stay in bed and rest, but I couldn’t forgive myself to loose the battle for punctuality with Pablito like that, so I woke up and came to the MPC.

Alejo’s morning meeting was a reference to Sarah Kay’s TEDTalk, If I Should Have a Daughter. The activity consisted on writing ten things we know are true. Here are my ten things I consider as true. Here and here are the links to Alejo’s blog were you can find what the other wrote.

10 Things I Know To Be True

Having some fun and “Workshop” – D54

After performing arts, we had some individual work and just before we had the workshop Bert planned for us at 4 p.m. we played some football and have fun at the Jardín Ayau. I was a team with Isa (we won of course), and Carmen, Pablito, and Franz were the other team.

For the workshop, first Bert showed us what we had to do for next week in order to deliver successfully our portfolio. The instructions were as follows:

•         Put yourself on the map
• List the readings and commentary you still have to complete.
• Write a guide to your documentation, highlighting for the reader certain features and content that represents your learning this term.
• Make a daily plan to recover and complete any work by February 4^th, 2013.
• Choose a chapter of one of our books that is particularly meaningful to you to present to the group on Thursday, December 13, 2012.
• Friday celebration at Kyle’s Library Project.

Later, we got into our groups of three and made two moral systems of some author Bert mentioned but I don’t quite remember. Here is the picture of how we divided the virtues and vices. We were close to made the two systems as the author made them, but here is the comparison for you to judge.

Finally, Bert gave us the Dialogue Rubric of the juniors (16-year-old students) at School of the Woods. It’s very interesting how many similarities we found with our rubric, and of course we would grab some ideas to incorporate to our rules. We talked about this rubric and our thoughts on it. Nothing really interesting happened to be honest. So far for today (now it’s 6:10 p.m.) Along with Alejo we stayed playing football-tenis at an improvised court in the individual work room. The match was close (51-47), but I lost. We left at 7 p.m. 

Singing Christmas Carols (P.A.) – D54

So, for Performing Arts we finally decided which song we are going to sing for the Christmas carol we are planning on doing. The final two choices were Silent Night and Deck the Halls. The latter won. It would be interesting to see if we managed to sing it well and have a good time as a group by the end of these couple of weeks left. One thing that bothered everyone was Lucia’s antipathy towards working as a group, because she decided to leave the activity and start “working” on her stuff but then came back. That kind of attitudes is what makes me don’t like her, for real. It makes me think she is not committed to the group and that she would be better off leaving the MPC, just like her sister. I really don’t want to be tough on her, but the truth is that she doesn’t help too much, although today she brought Hazella (Nutella) and won some points. She later lost them.

Plato’s “Apology” Dialogue 3 – D54

For the Epicycle 1 of this week on Classical Works, we continued reading Apology by Plato. It was very interesting and we discussed important parts of this work. The main questions were, Is Socrates atheist? If not, why and what does he believes? Is virtue a way to improve the soul? In what does he believes to be the ultimate end? Wisdom? Is it doing what’s right? Then, what is to be right? Is it to question and seek for the authentic quest for meaning?

Here are my notes of the dialogue:

Dialogue 3 (3/12/12)

• Of what is Socrates being prosecuted for?
• First charge: of being an atheist.
• Second charge: corrupting the young.

• Euthyphro: what is it that we revere that would be a guide to our action? And how do we know what should be revered?
• Euthyphro has no grounds on what to justify his reverence. That’s the main point of Socrates’ dialogue. 

• What is Socrates doing? (p. 5 - 10)
• Demonstrating Meletus’s contradiction: “He is not an atheist.”
• He is doing the right things.
• Conceit of knowledge
• He is doubting the legitimacy of the procedure, because the people charging him are ignorant at the charges.
• What is God according to Socrates?
• What is to have virtue? To be faithful and true to what they revere. For Socrates is that wisdom, doing the right thing?
• Who has no foundation of the truth, the real atheist?

• Did ever any man believe in horsemanship, and not in horses? or in flute-playing, and not in flute-players?
• He believes in cause and effect. I’m wise enough to realize that I don’t know the cause, and that what differentiates me from you. 

• Demonstrated preferences
• It’s your actions that defines you, not what you claim you do. Foundations of social science.
• Your actions reveal who you really are.
• “There you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong - acting the part of a good man or of a bad.”

• Socrates knows that he doesn’t know, that’s his truth.
• The true, the beautiful, and the good.
• If we don’t cultivate the capacity to recognize it, we would not see it.

JavierP’s Morning Meeting and Sharing Linkage P4 – D54

Javier Parellada facilitated today’s morning meeting. We did two activities. The first one was that he would touch the shoulder of someone and he would be the “liar” and the rest of the group would have to guess who that person was. We did this two times and to our surprise, the first time no one was the liar and the second everyone was the liar. It was very ingenious and fun to see the different reaction and corporal language each of us had. The second activity was more of a prank to Bert. One person was supposed to go out and when he or she got back everyone would moo, but only one would moo louder and that person would have to guess whom it was. The prank didn’t go quite well but it was funny.

We took the Agora time to continue our activity of sharing linkage. Today, the ones who shared were Alejo, JavierT, Majo, Grace, Bert, and Chacho.