As I was walking out of class today, Jack Grondwalski comes up to me and says, "Mills, your facial expressions throughout that entire class were HILARIOUS". They certainly were, I just looked so, completely, utterly, blown. First, Mr. Heidkamp asked the question, "What is the essence of life?" Then looked to us to name certain aspects of our lives that we think make our lives, livable. But in actuality, the class didn't have anything to say. We answered his question with almost complete silence. Then he started naming and putting things on the board, such as love, relationships, and we got the hang of it. My first thought was, there is no definition, every person's life is different, and to each their own. However, our teacher continued to put more general stereotypical terms on the board like "success" and "God".
Then he proceeded to cross them out with red dry erase marker and write, "made up" next to them. We discussed for the rest of class how these essences of life were "social constructs" and "a coping mechanism" for dealing with the "randomness of pain and suffering" in our daily lives. Happiness, morality, justice, memories, all "made up".
In all honesty, I was mostly trying to break the system of teacher-student, and ask him questions. Get him riled up and annoyed, make him feel like he is back in high school. Hopefully, I succeeded.
I think it is funny that you used the lesson as a way of breaking the binary that exists between a teacher and a student. That is an interesting approach to how you countered Mr. Heidkamp's lecture.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I was cheering for you a bit in the lecture, because even when his points were being criticized as "crazy," I thought they were interesting and deserved a solid rebuttal. Why not break the binary, while simultaneously striving for a new level of thinking? When it's a discussion, things should go off-course, and I think the controversy and conflict within the classroom itself was an appropriate adventure.
ReplyDeleteYour questions were great during class and I like that you challenged the dominance that he thought he possessed during the lecture, however, you showed him that our class isn't as shy as he might think and you stood up for the "made up" systems that we all find comfort in.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting approach to the teacher/student binary. I must admit that I was skeptical of the validity of the arguments you made in class (then again I was also somewhat skeptical of Mr. Heidkamp's arguments) however now I understand that it was merely a tactic to challenge the authority of the "teacher" by the "student". When talking about concepts such as existentialism and the meaning of life, there is no "right" or "wrong" answer. I think Mr. Heidkamp was trying to show us one side of how someone can view life by presenting it in such a manner that made it seem as though it were the truth. When he made the claim that religion was made up (and more) I can understand how people would seem offended, however I don't think he was truly asserting those statements, rather just showing how someone might view these social constructs. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the discussion and think you did a good job in bringing about counterarguments and alternative perspectives.
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