Lessons

Lessons

Lesson: Anthropology


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Anthropology

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Teachers give report cards.
Remember that the best way to teach is to model that which you wish a student to become. And remember also, that you are your own best teacher. So your best bet if you want to transform yourself - and become something new - is to first be it, then follow your own model. What? How can you BE something before you have learned HOW to be it? Unfold this paradox, and you are on your way to becoming a true teacher! Also remember that the way to learn a lesson is to Question what you have ben taught, then Remember what you know. This may also sound paradoxical. But this is the way of humankind. We are beings who move into new lessons by leaps of faith into what we wish and believe - then afterward find out how we got there.

So, how has our student been doing? How is humankind as a student? If you were the teacher to humankind, what would you say? How would you report on humankind's progress?

The following is an excerpt from a report card ...
"At the beginning of the semester, humankind was getting along with others; but lately it has been exhibiting some anti-social behavior. Humankind has been taking lunches from some of the other species (by eating more and more as our own population increases) and even destroying lunches of some (by using their space). It has been acting as if it is entitled to exclusive use of many parts of the playground. If humankind does not learn to share, it is going to need a timeout."

What's up with these humans? For a couple of million years, they were probably in harmony with life. But in the last ten thousand years - all of a sudden - the humans are responsible for major increases of the use of natural resources and major decreases in the diversity of species. The study of what's up with people is called ANTHROPOLOGY ... "The holistic, social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings."

So basically, there are 3 things that civilized humans now do that hunter gatherers did not do.

Prevent large numbers of other life forms from having their own habitats (by building ours and keeping them out).
Prevent large numbers of other life forms from finding their own food (by planting fields and keeping them out).
Prevent large numbers of other life forms from eating their own food (by eating ours and theirs).

TASK: Write one set of 3 Triple Trouble quiz questions in reMember Mate® about things that hunter gatherers used to do.

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reMember Mate®

Forgetting
I have some questions about early humankind.

What were humans like before we were civilized?
Were there cave men and women?
Was the cave man unintelligent?
Was humankind really uncivilized for a couple of million years - or just 'untechnological'?
Recorded history started around 8,000 years ago. Is that because we weren't smart enough to read or write before then?

In the art of teaching, research shows that it is better to forget what has just been learned, then review it. When it is re-learned, the new information gets moved to long term memory and is thus remembered. Perhaps much of early humankind's characteristics and history has been forgotten by design. In this way, we can re-discover our previous knowledge and learn it more deeply. If this is so, perhaps there was an intelligent version of humankind that is forgotten. Then, a second version started around 10,000 years ago. Perhaps we are embarking on version three in this special time of great change.

HUMANKIND 1.0 - intelligent, in harmony with nature, forgotten
HUMANKIND 2.0 - intelligent, temporarily out of harmony with nature, presently finishing up
HUMANKIND 3.0 - intelligent, in harmony with nature again, just beginning

TASK: Write 2 Who's Your Daddy quiz questions & 2 It's All Relative quiz questions in reMember Mate® abour Forgetting.

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reMember Mate®

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Masters of Transformation

These 3 masters transformed mathematics. All three came up with geometries that were not at all like Euclid's geometry - the one we used for two millenia. The interesting thing is that these three men came up their revolutionary ideas - all in similar ways - all in the mid 1800's, at the same time!

TASK: Open all three short biographies of Riemann, Lobachevsky, and Bolyai. Keep them open.
Write 3 Who Am I? quiz questions in reMember Mate® about these three fellows in one shot.

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reMember Mate®


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