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Tuesday October 23, 2012

Morning Meeting

Today went by pretty quickly. I arrived 1 minute late so I didn't come in to our epicycle which was directed by Franz. I managed to get some of the material but I missed out on the discussion my peers had. I realize that I'm not applying the rule of leaving my house at 6:30am strictly anymore and even though I thing I MIGHT get right on time it's just not certain enough. Especially because I realized it's midterm week at the university and magically hundreds of new faces show up (implying hundreds of cars lining up in the entrance). So hello 6:30am rule again. I feel kind of guilty because it's my mother who takes me to the university and she usually delays her breakfast time and errands in order to take me so I try not to push her too much, I'll have a talk to her today in order for both of us to change the culture that we've built in my house.

Agora

I enjoyed today's agora, the group in charge of this week's roster really made an effort to bring tasty snacks and have warm coffee at all times. Pablito even walked around offering french-press made coffee, they're really raising the bar! (Which we'll have to raise even further next week as it's EUCLID AND THE ELEMENTS' turn to serve the people). Be. Our. Guest.

Individual Work

I spent most of my individual work answering the 8 week reflection paper that's due on Thursday. I think no feedback can be as impacting as coming to a sincere reflection upon one's own work and mediocrity. It was certainly a wake up call for me to realize the good and the TERRIBLE things that I'm doing. I wouldn't say I was doing a mediocre job if that was all I knew, but I know I can do a WAAAAY better job than what I'm doing now. So it's time to take myself more seriously, take the MPC and my peers more seriously and most important to realize it's MY EDUCATION and the safety of erring provided in the MPC will not be provided elsewhere so these 3 years I need to make as much mistakes as I can yet learn and grow from them. If I simply cried over my mistakes I wouldn't be going anywhere. I need to fail forward. Speaking of which, I worked from 8:00am to 11:30am non stop which made me realize that I need to get a schedule since at 11:30am I was just finished and I logged into Facebook and youtube and pretty much never took back my work. If I had scheduled a break I'd have rested a bit and then gotten back to work instead of wasting one whole hour.

Euclid

Doing Euclid is like learning calligraphy, you do it over and over again until it becomes something of a "second nature" as Ingrid described it. I realize I'm being bitten by the Euclid Bug. I'm starting to love Geometry (even a more than other subjects). I realized how with our Definitions, Postulates, Common Notions and previous Propositions I can solve new propositions although it's a very laborious task if you take an honest approach at it.

Debrief

Today's debrief was very honest, although we did a terrible job at following dialogue rubrics. People were talking on top of each other, commenting to a side, avoiding eye contact, it was terrible! What I liked though was to see how people care and are willing to keep a discussion in search of progress. We were going to debrief more of the day but the class was incomplete and two people started a conversation, other two interfered and an argument showed up. We agreed on waiting for everyone on to be present in order to start.Why did this change? Although I agree with the point of simply starting with or without the late comers in this case it was not what had been previously established. (If that were the argument). But I simply saw two people having a conversation so I don't see why there was any need to stop them.

Anyways, this started a whole new argument regarding tardiness and our behavior. Why are we late? Why is it so hard to change that? Are we not committed? Our previous solution wasn't working well so after a bit of debate we decided to try allowing those who are late to come in and form part of a silent audience instead of being left outside until 7:30am. The reason I believe this alternative might work is because our previous solution gave us 30 minutes of "free time" and exclusion from the group. I came late today and I actually enjoyed it, I checked my mail and spoke to my brother which I hadn't communicated with in a long time. I can't say I would've learned anything from it if we hand't discussed the importance of being present during the morning epicycle. I regret not being present for the discussion but nevertheless I felt no responsibility, maybe by being present and realizing what's actually going on instead of disconnecting we might come to appreciate the importance of the meetings. We'll try it out and see how it goes, still, today was pretty intense so I'll be working on my punctuality.

Later on we went to talk about negative feedback, being real and the topic of "the silent room" was brought up again. Alejo said that he disliked it and that he heard other people disliked it as well. He suggested a quick vote to resolve the issue but then his solution was interrupted by Bert's and Diego's comments which lead to more controversy. Diego claimed that since we were going to "try new things" we might as well try not having one. Such claim sounds reasonable to certain extent. I feel that trying it would work but what I heard him implying was that simply because as a group we said we'd like to try new solutions we HAD to take his suggestion because we were willing to experiment with new option. The flaw with such implications falls on that the first solution was discussed and analyzed on depth, this one was suggested yet never discussed by the group. And simply because it's new, and it was a suggestion, it doesn't mean it should be put into action immediately. If I suggested that everyone wears red sunglasses for a week does it mean that we need to adopt such suggestion for the sake of trying new alternatives? I think it would be great having the silent room elsewhere for a determined period of time, not for the sake of doing it but rather to reach a specific goal (have a silent area that works).

Hopefully tomorrow we'll come to a solution and see how it works. For now, goodbye. (I'm very excited because after two years I'm about to re-take my piano lessons! Yeeeeeah!) See you tomorrow!

#Inés Canjura #alejo rivera #diego rivera #euclid and the elements #pablito velasquez #journal

Culture Building

“If people are to coooperate (i.e., literally to “work together”) they have to be able to create something in common, something that takes the shape in their mutual discussions and actions, rather than something that is conveyed from one person who acts as an authority to the others, who act as passive instruments of this authority.”—David Bohm, On Dialogue

Today in the morning we read this quote. One thing I'm learning is that things are NOT as simple as they seem. I think the design of my head exploding (you can see it in the heading of my blog) was inspired on the moment when we tried to define culture and institutions. I felt frustrated and confused as my paradigms started to shift. We even did some group work on it, actually, the first time I gathered with Alejo and Inés to do something. We struggled to establish how institutions (sets of rules) can exist without culture but culture can't exist without institutions since culture itself is an institution and a set of rules might exist (an institution) without being followed. Yes. It’s confusing but in the end even if we didn’t reach our “desired” conclusion we spoke about the importance of what a culture was and how such can be created and transformed. In the MPC we seek to construct a different culture than from our past experiences in academic environments, one of learning, thinking, sharing. We realize everyday that there’s a long way to go, but looking back to the time we’ve spent here I believe we’re starting to progress, and everyday I realize how important it is to actually HAVE such culture because then the desired behavior becomes something that occurs automatically (and eventually becomes part of you).

#Alejo Rivera #Inés Canjura #culture #mpc #mpcers #MPC

Day 1 (continuation)

Day 1 - The MPC Survival Kit, Thinking Dispositions, Speeches, Discussion

THE MPC SURVIVAL KIT

After the wonderful breakfast we had we all moved into our new space. Each person took a seat to establish their personal space, each place had a paper bag with what was called "The MPC Survival Kit". What was in it? Colorful post-its, play doh, a shoe string, a red ribbon, two plastic clips, paper tissues, a pencil, chalk, and a rubicube. So far everything's been useful, although I'm not sure if used in the "right way". Javier T (my friend and desk neighbor) and I created a mobile trashcan with the paper bag, plastic bags, the plastic clips and the red ribbon. We love it because then we don't have to walk to the other side of the room and it doesn't occupy much space. We could simply get a trashcan but this one works so we're fine with it for now. We also had a flower vase with a red flower inside, after the flower died we washed it, covered it with plastic and created a piggy bank. We brought an electric pencil sharpener, raid, lysol, hand sanitizer, and more practical stuff. Whenever someone wants to use it they leave a contribution they consider appropriate. Afterwards, based on the design printed in our bag, we made groups of three that will last the entire first semester. My group members are Alejo Rivera and Inés Canjura.

Thinking Dispositions

During breakfast Bert handed out tiny rolls of paper which contained questions and statements. We were given some time to share (no one established any other rules) and our task was to record whatever we learned in some way. After several trials we organized all of the papers into three major categories; Questions, Culture of Inquiry and Thinking Dispositions. Out of them all the ones I recorded in my personal journal were the Thinking Dispositions. When we related the three topics I found these to be the most important of the three and I would like to acquire them. (I also think the Questions and Culture of Inquiry column are ways of achieving the thinking dispositions, although it may just be a cycle).

1) Be Broad and Adventurous

2) Be Metacognitive

3) Sustain Intellectual Curiosity

4) Be Planful & Strategic

5) Clarify and Seek Understanding

6) Seek & Evaluate Reasons

7) Be Intellectualy Careful

SPEECHES

After a small break we went into the room and presented a speech on our dreams, that's how we were officially introduced to the group. What I enjoyed the most of this activity was that we met each other basing ourselves in what inspires us and the type of persons we aspire to become not in respect to who we've been or what our past has been like. I definitely recognized Javier Tabush, one of my best friends since 3rd grade, some others I knew from the meetings we had previously in June, and most people I was getting to know for the first time. It might seem "usual" to meet new people in the university, but being Guatemala we're used to knowing most people, or making connections with a person we know already. This wasn't exactly the case, and I loved it. It broadened my vision of the people in Guate and definitely gave me a sense that I might feel sometimes that Guatemala is "boring" but everyday I realize all of the potential it offers. Regarding my speech I must recognize I thought of it a week beforehand but wrote it in the moment. I will post the final copy ( and the one I presented on our Inauguration Ceremony) on another note.

LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK by Parker Palmer

Let Your Life Speak is a book that I read before entering the MPC. To be honest I haven't finished reading it (don't kill me yet). I got an e-mail from Bert as I was still completing a Screenwriting workshop in New York City. I downloaded the book into my kindle but left it there as I was focused on finishing my script. On the flight back I decided to read some pages and before I fell asleep the reading raised in me a question: Am I living the life that wants to live in me? It seemed confusing at first and somewhat ridiculous. I lead my own life, it's nonsense that there's such thing as a "life" that wants to live in me. But as I dedicated more thought to it i realized that I had been asking myself this question for quite a long time already, I just didn't know the words for it. I graduated in June 2011 and never knew what I wanted to study, specially because I didn't feel a calling to what my vocation was. I took some time to travel and learn new things such as Filmmaking, German, and how I share my faith and religion with millions of young people in the world. I returned from these trips in december 2011 and being distracted by the christmas season and nostalgia from the trips I left time for reflecting upon my vocation aside. I realized I had forced myself to "do something" in January since I had no concrete plan yet, so I decided to join the Business Faculty at UFM. I can't say I didn't end up enjoying it and learning a lot, but most of my days felt cold and cloudy. I realized I had a problem when someone literally asked me if I needed a friend. I couldn't contain my laughter at the situation and realized that no one other than myself was making me go through this slow death. To distract myself I ended up sleeping and partying, but that wasn't the point. Although I could say I was "living the moment" I felt empty inside. I decided to drop out of the classes I disliked the most, I started going back to Church and to the Psychologist and in July I had the opportunity of traveling to NYC in order to complete the 8 week course on screenwriting. It feels like all of this was a lifetime ago, but as I look back today I realized I listened to the life that wanted to live in me. Sure, one can say, how couldn't anyone enjoy being in New York. But being there was half of the fun, I realized I actually had control of my life, how I had for a moment seen the truth that wanted to live through me (my vocation). I also realize that most of the times this is not clear, but like the headlights of a car driving in the middle of a dark road I need only to see "just enough" to keep going and fulfill the life that's latent inside of me. I didn't want to summarize what I had read since I strongly encourage this book to everyone who may be "happy" at whatever they're doing, but don't yet feel it's what they honestly feel they should be doing. I post the questions: What life are you living? What's your vocation? What do you want NOW, in THIS moment?