thank you so much for the past 30 days
or so I’ve been preparing for a play at
the Hickory Community Theatre it’s an
Irish wake and I play the parts of
Father Damon Fitzgerald now this guy has
some serious character problems and so
the director says yorda guy
the real challenge though is getting a
guy from Burke County to somehow come up
with anything that sounds like a Norrish
broke that’s the job
my interaction with knowledge at least
it’s nuanced levels began in high school
I was on the debate team and we
discussed things like nuclear
proliferation and how to integrate or
should we integrate disabled students
into the regular classroom I began to
notice that my goodness there’s a lot of
big issues out there for which there
doesn’t seem to be this aha answer that
everyone just immediately resonates with
that was an interesting discovery I went
on and several others on the team to do
dramatic interpretation extemporaneous
speaking what we were learning is that
there’s great power in communication the
pieces of information that are shared
the way they’re packaged and presented
the parts that are left out really can
change people’s beliefs and that’s
powerful so I went on to do music a
choral conductor I taught at the
collegiate level for several years then
got into full-time church music about
five years ago we decided we wanted to
move back to Hickory I grew up in Drexel
down the road we wanted this to be the
place that our kids would call home and
it’s been great I started teaching at
Hickory high school doing choral music
there and then after about two years
they asked if I would teach the
International Baccalaureate course
called theory of knowledge and I was
like oh this is great I love it so what
the course does if you’re unfamiliar
with it this is for the purpose of
preparing students to go out into the
world and really be change agents
there’s an IB learner profile I’m going
to list some attributes I want you to
let your mind wander a little
think about people that you know who
possess these qualities you might even
think of circumstances situations that
are in the news that which when you hear
these words your mind kind of goes to
knowledgeable a communicator a
risk-taker reflective an Enquirer you
may not observe but if you’re keen you
might see that you your mind starts to
make a connection
in other words confirmation bias starts
to slip in if you think of a particular
issue that you feel a certain way about
a person who agrees with you on that
topic is knowledgeable they’re balanced
they’re caring if someone is on the
opposite side of the issue you have
already kind of pushed their viewpoint
out of the way they couldn’t possibly be
balanced in their perspective this is
something I’ve discovered it’s just a
human condition
that’s instinctive it’s just so hard to
push aside it’s like a camera that is
just unable to focus it’s not auto focus
you have to dial in the image but some
people in all of us at certain times are
unable to make those adjustments so that
we can see the image clearly or from a
different perspective
now I be in the theory knowledge of
classes arranged all the knowledge of
the world into eight categories so
there’s mathematics there is Natural
Sciences human sciences the arts ethics
history religious knowledge systems and
indigenous knowledge systems we love
talking about the last one in class see
this goes way beyond your kind of eighth
grade report bring us into some food
show us an outfit we want to know how
these people think how do they approach
the world what do they value and why do
they value that and that helps inform
the Tok student into being a more
empathetic person in the world
so once we
these areas of knowledge out there then
we start delving into the ways of
knowing how is it that we come by
information and process it in our mind
and there’s eight of those as well
there’s language reason since perception
emotion there is faith there it is
intuition imagination and memory
oddly enough I should have put that one
first so what happens is corporations
they understand this they try to train
their employees in ways to work together
to be harmonious I remember going to a
conference where people had to wear
certain colored hats when they spoke in
a certain way sometimes we get into
trouble though if we think that harmony
is the main objective because if you’re
trying to grow take your business to the
next level there’s gonna be some
wrangling about and it’s going to be
difficult it can be explained this way
the crucible of competing values is not
for the faint of heart its refining fire
sullies the emotions and so we get into
these discussions about how do we apply
the areas of knowledge in such a way to
bring about positive change I love bill
extras to way of describing this in the
growth rings you start with a stagnation
ring where there’s not much room for
free flow of thought and new ideas
everything’s very predictable which
moves you into that level of comfort
it’s right on point there’s no
controversy everything is smooth but
then what happens maybe as a young
person you go off to college you meet a
new friend you move to a different part
of the country and new ideas are put in
your forefront of your view and you have
to deal with them you have to reconcile
those with preconceived ideas that
you’ve had it challenges you and makes
you want to struggle and move forward
through that so growth tends to happen
in those moments of unsettledness so how
do we teach Tok students to get through
that we use a technique of developing
knowledge questions knowledge questions
engender
communication they’re open-ended there’s
two ways that we teach the students to
do it you can start with a knowledge
question and then try to find real-life
situations for which the observations
gained from the knowledge question can
be applied the students like starting
with a real-life situation an occurrence
an article a piece of art and then try
to back up from there and develop a
knowledge question the significance of
it is you need to be able to develop
ideas about the knowledge question
without even referring to the specific
situation thereby getting a broader view
and one that can be applicable to other
things so in other words knowledge
questions are deliberately conceived to
be open general even contentious they’re
designed to invite conversation not a
single definitive response so after the
knowledge questions have been gained we
start having conversations about really
important things in the class over the
past two years we’ve discussed things
like the Confederate monument debate
we’ve discussed gun control the vouchers
in schools so many issues that come up
the culture just provides one after
another and we can talk about these
things in civil tones and really try to
uncover what are some of the deeper
layers that we need to find and analyze
so that we can best learn from another
perspective one of the things that is a
favorite component of the class is guest
speakers it’s been alluded to already
today that we cannot possess all the
knowledge and all the subjects that we
need so if we’re going to traffic in
areas where we have some interest we
want to understand better we need the
people who know what they’re talking
about to come and speak to us so we’ve
had medical doctors come to the class
we’ve had poets we’ve had life coaches
financial advisers yoga instructors I
mean across the gamut of all the eight
areas of knowledge we try to bring in
speakers to facilitate discussion and
open up the students minds to different
ways of perceiving these ideas it’s been
so helpful and instructive
because it helps the students move past
the same way we all grow up we come to
certain viewpoints we adopt certain
ideas about things whether they’re
political the desires to be happy what
is wealth and how do we attain it all of
the things that are common to the
journey of life these students have the
opportunity to delve in in the deeper
way so what’s the real point of it all
for students and for each of us we have
to acknowledge that this idea of
confirmation bias is just a part of who
we are if I were to look at your
Facebook wall or you were to look at
mine
we’ll see comments that would might and
give us a clue that yeah there’s a
person there that could benefit from a
more sturdy approach to gaining
knowledge but the reality is we’re all
guilty of it we don’t want to admit it
but we are and so the people who can
acknowledge that it’s there seek to
obliterate it at any cost those are the
people that are going to make great
leaders in the future thank you
[Applause] [Music]
or so I’ve been preparing for a play at
the Hickory Community Theatre it’s an
Irish wake and I play the parts of
Father Damon Fitzgerald now this guy has
some serious character problems and so
the director says yorda guy
the real challenge though is getting a
guy from Burke County to somehow come up
with anything that sounds like a Norrish
broke that’s the job
my interaction with knowledge at least
it’s nuanced levels began in high school
I was on the debate team and we
discussed things like nuclear
proliferation and how to integrate or
should we integrate disabled students
into the regular classroom I began to
notice that my goodness there’s a lot of
big issues out there for which there
doesn’t seem to be this aha answer that
everyone just immediately resonates with
that was an interesting discovery I went
on and several others on the team to do
dramatic interpretation extemporaneous
speaking what we were learning is that
there’s great power in communication the
pieces of information that are shared
the way they’re packaged and presented
the parts that are left out really can
change people’s beliefs and that’s
powerful so I went on to do music a
choral conductor I taught at the
collegiate level for several years then
got into full-time church music about
five years ago we decided we wanted to
move back to Hickory I grew up in Drexel
down the road we wanted this to be the
place that our kids would call home and
it’s been great I started teaching at
Hickory high school doing choral music
there and then after about two years
they asked if I would teach the
International Baccalaureate course
called theory of knowledge and I was
like oh this is great I love it so what
the course does if you’re unfamiliar
with it this is for the purpose of
preparing students to go out into the
world and really be change agents
there’s an IB learner profile I’m going
to list some attributes I want you to
let your mind wander a little
think about people that you know who
possess these qualities you might even
think of circumstances situations that
are in the news that which when you hear
these words your mind kind of goes to
knowledgeable a communicator a
risk-taker reflective an Enquirer you
may not observe but if you’re keen you
might see that you your mind starts to
make a connection
in other words confirmation bias starts
to slip in if you think of a particular
issue that you feel a certain way about
a person who agrees with you on that
topic is knowledgeable they’re balanced
they’re caring if someone is on the
opposite side of the issue you have
already kind of pushed their viewpoint
out of the way they couldn’t possibly be
balanced in their perspective this is
something I’ve discovered it’s just a
human condition
that’s instinctive it’s just so hard to
push aside it’s like a camera that is
just unable to focus it’s not auto focus
you have to dial in the image but some
people in all of us at certain times are
unable to make those adjustments so that
we can see the image clearly or from a
different perspective
now I be in the theory knowledge of
classes arranged all the knowledge of
the world into eight categories so
there’s mathematics there is Natural
Sciences human sciences the arts ethics
history religious knowledge systems and
indigenous knowledge systems we love
talking about the last one in class see
this goes way beyond your kind of eighth
grade report bring us into some food
show us an outfit we want to know how
these people think how do they approach
the world what do they value and why do
they value that and that helps inform
the Tok student into being a more
empathetic person in the world
so once we
these areas of knowledge out there then
we start delving into the ways of
knowing how is it that we come by
information and process it in our mind
and there’s eight of those as well
there’s language reason since perception
emotion there is faith there it is
intuition imagination and memory
oddly enough I should have put that one
first so what happens is corporations
they understand this they try to train
their employees in ways to work together
to be harmonious I remember going to a
conference where people had to wear
certain colored hats when they spoke in
a certain way sometimes we get into
trouble though if we think that harmony
is the main objective because if you’re
trying to grow take your business to the
next level there’s gonna be some
wrangling about and it’s going to be
difficult it can be explained this way
the crucible of competing values is not
for the faint of heart its refining fire
sullies the emotions and so we get into
these discussions about how do we apply
the areas of knowledge in such a way to
bring about positive change I love bill
extras to way of describing this in the
growth rings you start with a stagnation
ring where there’s not much room for
free flow of thought and new ideas
everything’s very predictable which
moves you into that level of comfort
it’s right on point there’s no
controversy everything is smooth but
then what happens maybe as a young
person you go off to college you meet a
new friend you move to a different part
of the country and new ideas are put in
your forefront of your view and you have
to deal with them you have to reconcile
those with preconceived ideas that
you’ve had it challenges you and makes
you want to struggle and move forward
through that so growth tends to happen
in those moments of unsettledness so how
do we teach Tok students to get through
that we use a technique of developing
knowledge questions knowledge questions
engender
communication they’re open-ended there’s
two ways that we teach the students to
do it you can start with a knowledge
question and then try to find real-life
situations for which the observations
gained from the knowledge question can
be applied the students like starting
with a real-life situation an occurrence
an article a piece of art and then try
to back up from there and develop a
knowledge question the significance of
it is you need to be able to develop
ideas about the knowledge question
without even referring to the specific
situation thereby getting a broader view
and one that can be applicable to other
things so in other words knowledge
questions are deliberately conceived to
be open general even contentious they’re
designed to invite conversation not a
single definitive response so after the
knowledge questions have been gained we
start having conversations about really
important things in the class over the
past two years we’ve discussed things
like the Confederate monument debate
we’ve discussed gun control the vouchers
in schools so many issues that come up
the culture just provides one after
another and we can talk about these
things in civil tones and really try to
uncover what are some of the deeper
layers that we need to find and analyze
so that we can best learn from another
perspective one of the things that is a
favorite component of the class is guest
speakers it’s been alluded to already
today that we cannot possess all the
knowledge and all the subjects that we
need so if we’re going to traffic in
areas where we have some interest we
want to understand better we need the
people who know what they’re talking
about to come and speak to us so we’ve
had medical doctors come to the class
we’ve had poets we’ve had life coaches
financial advisers yoga instructors I
mean across the gamut of all the eight
areas of knowledge we try to bring in
speakers to facilitate discussion and
open up the students minds to different
ways of perceiving these ideas it’s been
so helpful and instructive
because it helps the students move past
the same way we all grow up we come to
certain viewpoints we adopt certain
ideas about things whether they’re
political the desires to be happy what
is wealth and how do we attain it all of
the things that are common to the
journey of life these students have the
opportunity to delve in in the deeper
way so what’s the real point of it all
for students and for each of us we have
to acknowledge that this idea of
confirmation bias is just a part of who
we are if I were to look at your
Facebook wall or you were to look at
mine
we’ll see comments that would might and
give us a clue that yeah there’s a
person there that could benefit from a
more sturdy approach to gaining
knowledge but the reality is we’re all
guilty of it we don’t want to admit it
but we are and so the people who can
acknowledge that it’s there seek to
obliterate it at any cost those are the
people that are going to make great
leaders in the future thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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