The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. (Aristotle)
Thinking about the musings from DAY 10: OK…So Who Is The Someone?…
I would submit to you that before we can dig deeper to answer that question, we must figure out…
How to answer that question.
Already wrapping up the second week of class, I begin to sense that I am not going to finish the content at the end of the semester, which is still months away. Whether it’s a fire alarm, an all-school assembly, or going a few minutes over with the school announcements, already the window of teaching the content and analysis necessary for the student to perform at an optimal level on the AP World History May exam is already closing.
As of this writing, I have been teaching this course for 16 years. And it seems, that for the most part, the expectations are always the same…
I am expected to teach 15 and 16-year olds 10,000 years’ worth of content, (before CollegeBoard redesigned the course a couple of years ago to around 800 years), and analysis, at a collegiate level, (in theory), in one semester, or 18 weeks.
I have not, nor ever will be able to, to my satisfaction, finish the course in its entirety, to give the students the best chance to be the most successful on that exam in May.
Whether it is 10,000 years of content and analysis, or around 800 years going forward, the reality is that these expectations are an impossible task.
With that being said, and knowing the obstacles that I am up against teaching in the public-school system, every year over the summer I work on ways to cut corners on both content and analysis, in order to try to fit all in…
I still have yet to find the winning combination to achieve these goals.
That means at the end of the summer, going into the academic school-year, sacrifices in content and analysis must be made.
One of those sacrifices for me usually come at the expense of the Greek Empire.
As week 2 would come to a close and that second weekend would finally approach, I used to spend about a week before the students’ first unit exam on the Classical Civilizations. They used to comprise the following 6 civilizations around the world that existed from about 600 BCE to 600 CE:
The Zhou and Han of China; The Gupta and Maurya of South Asia, (India), and; The Greeks and Romans of the Mediterranean region.
Too much content…too much analysis…
Not enough time.
If that was not enough, I no longer teach the Greek Empire anyway (at least not officially).
It is under these conditions that I will be lucky to even mention one man’s name at all during the semester…
Aristotle.
Aristotle lived from approximately 384 to 322 BCE in the Greek, (Macedonian) Empire. He was the last in a trinity of powerful thinkers who I refer to collectively as the ‘Golden Era of Greek philosophical thought’:
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
It is perhaps because of his status and association with both Socrates and Plato that King Philip II of Macedon summoned Aristotle to tutor his son Alexander the Great, who will ultimately become the worlds’ first conqueror. It is important to note that it is because of the contributions of the Greeks and more to the point Aristotle, that the civilizations of the West should thank. Why Aristotle? Socrates and Plato were giants in the Greek Empire before Aristotle came on the scene. However it was the many and varied contributions of Aristotle, that I believe the civilizations of the West should ultimately thank. These contributions included: agriculture, biology, botany, dance, ethics, mathematics, metaphysics, medicine, physics, politics, and theatre.
However, I would suggest to you that the one contribution that most impacted the Western world, and thus by default, at least over the last 500 years, the entire world, were contributions of Aristotle to philosophy.
Aristotle is referred to as the “Father of Western Philosophy.” Almost a 1000 years later, a philosophical heavyweight in his own right, Thomas Aquinas, referred to Aristotle as simply: “The Philosopher.”
A tiny fraction of his works remain in the present day, (31 of at least 200), of which are in crude, lecture and draft type format.
Nonetheless, the big takeaway is this:
Aristotle is the father of logic, reasoning and ultimately, the scientific method. Aristotle is the founding father of the concept of syllogism. Syllogism is basically a 3-step process to come to a logical conclusion. This is how Aristotle taught the Western World to think, using syllogism:
Part A – All humans are mortal; Part B – I am a human; Part C – I am mortal.
Pretty simple, yet, pretty profound. This syllogism concept, along with his foundational teachings in deductive and inductive reasoning, laid the groundwork for among other things, the modern field of science. The blueprint of logic reasoning and the scientific method remained the dominant form of inquiry, until the late 1800’s.
Now that you have a working idea of how syllogism works, read one of my takes on it:
Part A – All humans have brains; Part B – I am a human; Part C – I have a brain.
Again, pretty simple, yet, pretty profound. (I guess you could argue, pretty silly as well). Whether you agree or disagree as to how simple, or profound, or silly, my take on syllogism is, I would suggest the following…
I would submit to you that using Aristotle’s idea of syllogism going forward will help us to unlock many doors and answer many unanswered questions, about us, and about the universe.
Do not feel discouraged if you don’t know much about what you learned in your Social Studies and World History classes. Do not feel discouraged if you never knew or realized the true impacts of what Aristotle has done for the Western World. Instead, embrace the idea that it’s great to know now that Aristotle was a pretty amazing human. Embrace the idea that maybe, just maybe, using his concept of syllogism, may help us to better understand the world, the universe, and eternity.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1 Corinthians 13:11 KJV)
Was today’s blog a little confusing at times? Was the content perhaps a little overwhelming? Did you feel lost not understanding some or most of the subject matter?
Those feelings are totally understandable and it is ok to have one or more of those feelings. Remember that you are reading Day 11: There Has To Be A Way To Make It All Make Sense…Right?
If you haven’t been in class since the first day of school…or when the project began…or when the contract was first signed, etc., these feelings make perfect and logistical sense.
Please feel free to go back to where all of this began: