5pm- Today was another day of lectures as part of the Geography of Thought Conference that is being held in college this week. First thing this morning we had a talk from a psychologist from El Salvador/ America on cultural genealogy. She spoke for a while but then we broke out into selected groups and had to discuss various topics relating to her talk. We talked about the influence our ancestors and the history of our families has on our lives, even if we do not realise it. We had to share these thoughts with others and it was so interesting to hear everyone's stories. After that we met again in the hall and a couple of people shared with everyone the story of someone who had inspired them. I found it very moving. After break I had originally planned to go to a talk on realism but realised that the Principal, Neil, was holding a workshop and so I went to that instead. To be honest I was not sure exactly what it was on but I know that whenever he speaks he does so brilliantly. And it was brilliant! He combined group work and him speaking to build up a picture of how cultures and then societies begin and continue to develop. He went right back to Stone Age times to the hunter gatherers and their view of the world and then demonstrated how their understanding of the world influenced their lives and the lives of those that followed. In our groups we built up a belief system of how we viewed the world as a result of certain things we believed to be true. Every group had a different view despite us all having the same original starting point. Neil then used this to demonstrate how today we must understand that a belief is never wrong. There are reasons that we all believe what we do, and sometimes not even we know fully why we believe it. We can never tell someone that our belief is better than ours, that their religion is completely wrong or that they live their life the wrong way. It was funny, interesting but most of all right! Everything he said I believe in. It was the same with the lecture this afternoon. A man called John Abbot spoke about education and learning. He and then we discussed the most important learning experience of our lives. It was noticable he said that nobody chose a situation of reciting facts in a classroom! The talk lasted for a couple of hours. The first half consisted of background information and various quotes. The second half I found most interesting. He discussed educational systems and how, globally, they should be changed. He used many different quotes to illustrate this and there are so many I would love to share with you on here but I can't remember them!! One that I do remember is this: A famous physicist said to his pupil- " Stop being logical and start thinking". It was full of quotes like that which I wanted more time to debate and discuss! He then moved on the what we can do, as citizens of the world, and what we must do if we want the world to survive. He spoke about climate change and politics and I was captivated. He was a wise elderly man with so much experience and knowledge. At the end he was given a standing ovation and the boy next to me turned and said he could listen to him for many more hours. I felt exactly the same. He has written a book on education called "Overschooled but Undereducated". He is donating copies to the school library and I am definitely going to read it. He has so much to say that is worth listening to.
Well I once again I have had a great day and so will go now. It is impossible to convey on a blog how amazing some of the speakers at the conference have been but I gave it a go! Love to all.
