{"id":299,"date":"2015-11-19T15:03:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T20:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.wpengine.com\/?p=299"},"modified":"2015-12-03T15:33:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T20:33:08","slug":"a-philosophical-exploration-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=299","title":{"rendered":"A philosophical exploration"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maia Donahue<\/strong>
\nUpdate
\nH. H. Dow HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 2, News Writing
\nInformative Feature<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Students enrolled in the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class are quick to assert that the class does not rely on any formal structure. Senior Joyce Chu describes it as \u201c an exploration.\u201d The class, taught by Sarah Pancost, does seem to defy the mold of a \u201cnormal\u201d or more traditional class. As a core part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program, TOK is meant to introduce high school seniors to new ways of thinking.<\/p>\n

The class connects \u201cways of knowing\u201d with \u201careas of knowledge.\u201d Ways of knowing are defined as the sense perceptions: imagination, language, and intuition. Areas of knowledge can be thought of as what students learn in the traditional classroom setting, such as mathematics, human sciences, and history. The bridging of these areas creates questions about topics such ideologies and faith, which the students are expected to discuss in class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really strongly Catholic, like I love being Catholic and that\u2019s something at my core,\u201d Chu said. \u201cGoing to that class is really cool because we challenge things like what faith is as opposed to reason, and if they can exist together. So it was really cool seeing how everything coexists. Reason doesn\u2019t contradict faith and I learned that through TOK, which is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, students enrolled in TOK are expected to go beyond simply discussing faith or political ideologies. They also must acknowledge and respond to the interpretations of others in the class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we have this mindset where we have to debate and prove why we\u2019re right, but in TOK it teaches us to accept all opinions,\u201d Chu said.<\/p>\n

Pancost, in addition to being the only teacher in the building qualified to teach TOK, is also DHS\u2019 IB coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally I wasn\u2019t the IB coordinator, I just taught TOK,\u201d Pancost said. \u201cBecause TOK is the core of the IB program, when the coordinator at the time left, [the school] asked me to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

TOK itself involves exercises that wouldn\u2019t be found in a traditionally structured class. The class once spent time learning to draw horses in order to understand the concept of perspective and how it applies both literally to art and conceptually to life.<\/p>\n

This idea of connection between concepts is common among TOK students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my other classes, I\u2019ll just try to think about things in a TOK way, especially in English,\u201d senior Lauren Dimerc said.<\/p>\n

From the beginning of the class to the end, Pancost sees a marked change in her students.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end, they\u2019re so much more aware of the advantages we have, the obligations, and how people that are not like us might have something to teach us and they\u2019re just more thoughtful,\u201d Pancost said. \u201cIn the beginning, things seem\u00a0really black and white, and by the end they seem to be able to see grays better.\u201d<\/p>\n

In accordance with the IB alternative learning principle, the students travel to the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio every Thursday to conduct class. This has been a TOK tradition for several years, beginning when Pancost went on a tour with visiting relatives and noticed Alden B. Dow\u2019s \u201cWay of Life Cycle.\u201d It reminded her of the TOK philosophy, which seeks to bridge all aspects of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really cool to come here because it\u2019s really different from the traditional classroom environment and we learn a lot more things and think differently than we do in the traditional school environment,\u201d senior Kayla Stryker said. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to look at the different architecture and be able to have the hands-on experience. They don\u2019t have any restrictions here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, only six students in the class of 2015 are taking TOK to get the IB Diploma. Pancost says that this number fluctuates yearly with almost no rhyme or reason. Students enrolled in TOK begin the class in their second semester as\u00a0juniors and finish in the first semester of their senior year. This scheduling, while may seem strange to the observer, is actually specifically designed to fit IB requirements. IB classes start junior year, and aim to teach the \u201cways of knowing.\u201d TOK itself relies on \u201careas of knowledge.\u201d These two philosophies have to align in order for the experience to be of value. It employs concurrency of learning to make sure that students have deep connections and understanding of what they learn.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The best part of this class] is the ability to think outside the box instead of just following a set of instructions, and answering questions that have no right or wrong answer,\u201d senior Arlo Turpin said.<\/p>\n

Both Turpin and senior Andrew Morley hope to major in philosophy after high school, and see this class as an opportunity to help them achieve that goal.<\/p>\n

Most high school classes are based on answers: each question proposed by a professor has a right or wrong answer. TOK is a class based almost entirely on questions. Some are open ended, but in many cases, students answer their own questions. No answers are wrong. But none are exclusively right either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maia Donahue Update H. H. Dow HS 1st Place Division 2, News Writing Informative Feature<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[60,4],"tags":[48,21],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-informativefeature","category-nw","tag-48","tag-division2","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kelsey Parkinson","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=3"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-4P","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}