Rotary Speech--October 26, 2010

Dr. Ranganathan asked me to speak about my capstone project to her Rotary Club. Here's the speech if anyone is curious about the project and my motivations.

Introduction and DAT program
Namaskar, Vanakkam, Hari om--
En per Douglas Kennedy. En oor Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Enge veede Alwarpetle, Chennai irukke. Enakku Tamil konjambadhaan theriyum.

My name is Douglas Kennedy and am a Distinguished Fulbright Award in Teaching grantee based here in Chennai. My capstone project is entitled “Theory of Knowledge as a Bridge for Cultural Understanding.” I come from Minnesota, where the snow will be flying in a couple of weeks and will be hip deep in a month. Here are some pictures of my town—it’s a very green place with lakes both in and surrounding the city, lots of walking and bike paths (later ski trails in the winter). People live outdoors in the summer—mainly because winter lasts for six months—you’ll see families boating, biking and playing sports together. The Mississippi River runs through it as well. I’m as you can see a proud family man. My wife and I have been married for 14 years and we have a 5 year old little girl who is crazy about animals, books, dragons, beautiful dresses and swords. My family will be joining me here very soon. We’ll be pulling my daughter out of her International Baccalaureate school and my wife will be taking a leave from her job to come and experience south India. My daughter Madeleine is particularly excited about seeing elephants and a beach.

A little background on my program and we’ll get into the project—the Fulbright program I am part of is new and is only in its second year. For the 2010-11 school year, 12 highly qualified US teachers were chosen to undertake research projects in India, South Africa, Finland, the UK, Argentina, Mexico and Singapore. 17 international teachers were also selected and are presently studying and housed on the University of Maryland campus. Projects for all of us range from the use of toys in physics instruction, application Vedic mathematic principles to my project on cultural understanding.

Background
This project is a crossroads on a journey that started 6 years ago with a novel. In my Theory of Knowledge classes, the students read Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance—a popular book in the 1970s that many of their parents read. The book is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the author wrote the book in Minneapolis and his many motorcycle rides took him around the lake where most of my students live—they recognize the landmarks. Second the book raises some interesting questions about knowledge—the differences between the artistic mind and the scientific, Eastern vs. Western, emotion and intuition as opposed to reason and rationalism. Many of the students have not questioned the bases of knowledge—for example, the science that the learned from their elementary years was Truth, with a capital T, timeless and unwavering in its certainty. They read this book and suddenly their world is in flux. It’s like the solid ground under their feet suddenly started to shift. Most students find the book a challenge and intriguing, especially after we dissect and discuss it. All these questions are now swimming through their heads and they see that this class is going to be different. Two questions really stick with them.

The first question deals with identity and I start every year with it. On day one of class I ask “Who are you and how do you know it?” The course is often referred to as intellectual narcissism—perfect for 17 and 18 year olds, they get to think and talk about their favorite topic, namely themselves. However this question stumps them. The body and mind they’ve owned or inhabited for their entire lives now is being looked at in a different ways. They talk about their physical characteristics, their gender, their birth certificates, parents. By and large the responses are pretty shallow—they haven’t had to think about this topic. I up the ante by following it with “Why should you care about this question if at all?” Now the quizzical looks begin, some stock answers and borrowed wisdom (a couple say “Know thyself” of “To thine ownself be true” but can’t really say why it’s important). We turn to the text for guidance. In the book, two narrators lodged in the same body compete for the reader’s attention and control over the narrative. The students begin to question: who is the narrator? Is he sane? How would he know? Who deems whether an individual is sane or not? Which voice is credible? The pieces start to click together.

The other question that arises is about culture and knowledge—the baggage that the we all carry around with us but may not necessarily be conscious of until we travel abroad. The author studied Oriental philosophy at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. The experience had a tremendous impact on the author and it marks the beginning of a transformation in his thinking (quote on p. 141). The passage later goes on to talk about how these ideas would stick with him. The narrator who was dominated by logic alone starts to wonder about the roots of his knowledge and the limits of it. In essence he is questioning the underlying assumptions and beliefs of his knowledge, the cultural components. How can different views exist about truth? Why is reason so entrenched in the West? This questioning, according to the narrator at least, leads to him being deemed insane. The personality or the side of the narrator that sought to find the limits of reason and reconcile Eastern and Western knowledge is eradicated by electroshock therapy. I don’t want to ruin the book for anyone, there are a couple of interesting twists and turns in the rest of the novel, but you’ll have to find out what happens next on your own. I know they have the book at Landmark (an engineering friend of mine just purchased a copy two weeks ago). The students at this point start to wonder about what ideas and beliefs they haven’t examined, and why they see the world the way they do.

It was my students who pushed me. I wanted to do a better job teaching this novel so I started to read—first a companion to the novel, then Eastern philosophy. The students wanted to know more about the local connections and many of them had seen the Zen Center on one of the lakes in the city and had questions about connections to the novel. I sent out e-mails asking if anyone knew about the context of the novel or would be willing to be a community expert on the book or Zen beliefs and practice. A former college professor answered my query. Erik it turned out was Pirsig’s friend and one of the founders of the Zen Center along with the author. He knew the book well and many of the stories associated with it. He comes each year to speak to the classes about the author, its context in history and then takes them through a Zen meditation session. From conversations with Erik, I pursued a course in Zen meditation and philosophy and even began to meditate at his house. I learned a lot, but still I felt like I could do better at walking the walk as we say. Had I really examined what I knew and what lay behind these ideas and concepts? Had I modeled appropriately the curious mind or what it means to critically examine ideas?

Wondered about the course as well—what was the purpose? What were the outcomes for this international curriculum and why put a course like ToK in the center of it? I had my own opinions about it, but I knew that perhaps these were laden with some assumptions. As these questions, both from the novel and my, I guess we could call them meta-thoughts, thoughts about my thinking and teaching craft the idea for this project were devised. I wanted to see how the course was taught in a setting much different from mine, if possible in settings where cultural values were explicitly part of the mission or curriculum. I wanted to talk to teachers and administrators about how they saw the course and its purpose. More importantly I wanted to connect my students to the experience so they could learn. This latter part also stemmed from my students’ lack of knowledge about India but also a more idealistic place as well. I believe it is far more difficult to misjudge or misunderstand someone if you know them. Hate is built out of ignorance and peace is a product of understanding and the ability to empathize with another. I see my students as the future leaders in the world—they go to Ivy League schools, emerge as business executives and researchers. The world, as Thomas Friedman has successfully penned, is flat and our students will come into ever increasing contact with people different from themselves. I wanted to help ensure that the future would be in good hands—even if it was in some small way, I wanted to do something. To not, given my capacity, was ethically irresponsible.

The project
The project has 3 components: site visits, online platform for discussion and assignments or the curriculum piece, assessment of learning. Ideally, and this is still in the works, an exchange program between schools will result. For the American students this would take place in the late summer or early fall, and for the Indian students this will take place in May (they thought this would be a great time to be in a cooler climate).

The site visits are to gather data about other IB programs and their approaches to teaching Theory of Knowledge. While at the sites, I interview principals about the nuts about bolts of their program, their vision for the role and placement of ToK. I also interview the ToK teachers about more curriculum specific items such as how they address self-knowledge and culture. For some of these schools, like Chinmaya, the cultural component is an explicit part of the school vision and program. The question then becomes, what is the outcome of the program and how do you balance seemingly competing interests? While at the schools I also conduct teacher training sessions on Theory of Knowledge, writing workshops, teach and observe ToK classes and interview groups of students about their ToK experience. The site visits help formulate a spine of sorts to my project—models for how different schools approach the curriculum. I also visited non-IB schools that address the cultural issue or that utilize alternative approaches—schools like The School and the Isha Home School. I have also met with teacher training programs to see how Indian teachers are prepared. Again, all of these provide a grounding in the structure and variety of education in-country.

The next component is the work being conducted right now with the students at M. Ct. M. Chidambaram Chettyar International School. In conjunction with the Theory of Knowledge teacher at M. Ct. M., an online platform was set up to connect students here with my students in Minnesota. Each student has a profile post with their picture and a short writing assignment to introduce them to the rest of the group. The website also has a place for students to post photos, links, an online assignment drop box and a discussion board where they can respond to questions and each other’s writings. Right now we are incorporating themes about culture and cultural adaptation to our classroom work in order to get the students to think about the things that make them who they are and how these influence knowledge claims. The students will be responding to questions like:
• Examine the ToK diagram—the knower is in the center, why?
What can we know about ourselves?
Sources?
Types of evidence?
Is the knowledge reliable? Why/not?
Are the sources reliable? Why/not?
• IB is an international curriculum—what does that mean?
• How do societies value the individual?
What about groups, like families or tribes?
What are the gender roles?
What about familial roles?
What is the relationship of the individual to society?
• How does the past influence the present?
What are the big events or who are the significant players and how they
fit into the consciousness?

Additionally, the students will be working on readings and participating in seminars to help them push their thinking about what can be known and the influence of culture such as Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “In a Grove” (and the film by Akira Kurosawa “Roshomon”) and an excerpt from Pirsig’s novel about ghosts. Periodic smaller assessments will be added to help the students identify knowledge issues and to shore up weaknesses.

Their final assessment will be a knower’s profile. This consists of a paper or portfolio (could also be a presentation) that answers the following questions
• What are the sources of our knowledge?
May consider parents, culture, race, school, friends, books,
media, authorities…
Sources must be explained—what knowledge do they give us?
• Why do we trust them?
Responses require explanation for why we consider the source trustworthy
• Where do these sources get their knowledge? Where does it come from?
And by extension, this implies my knowledge
May want to consider traditions, beliefs, prophets, holy books, primary
sources, teachers, the media…
• What are some of the knowledge issues that arise?
The assessments will be graded based on the level of reflection that goes into their responses and attention to the implications of their points. The papers and the online responses will be analyzed for changes over time in the students thinking—how well do they see themselves at the beginning of the unit, versus the end, for example. Ideally, the connections that the students build up over the year from the online component (discussions and presentations over Skype will be undertaken after I return to the US) will facilitate an exchange of students where they can really interact. Meeting face to face is different than writing on Facebook or our site. Just the amount of time together provides an opportunity to continue the discussions and really get to know the people who were on the other side of the Internet connection. There’s something profound about breaking bread together or the pride that comes in sharing your home that deepens the connection and understanding between people.

To close this evening, I wanted to share two quotes with you that helped motivate me as I’ve encountered stumbling blocks and doubt along this journey. Both were cited in a book I just finished, AJP Abdul Kalam’s Ignited Minds—

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” (Goethe)—from the chapter on Visionary Scientists and Teachers

“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.” (Mahatma Gandhi) –from the chapter on Role Models

I dream about a world for my daughter where conflict, poverty and disease are handled by a community of individuals who can put understanding first and divisions second. This is a starting point for my contribution to that vision. Thank you for letting me speak with you this evening. Pranams. I believe we have some time for questions.