A Lighthouse for Personal Growth

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Agenda

  1. Intellectual Humility
  2. Activity 1: Aporia
  3. Review

Summary

Mnemonic

  • Admit the leak, or sink the ship.
  • I know that I know nothing.

Goal

  • Introduction to
    • Aporia
    • Intellectual Humility
    • Intellectual Resilience
    • Open-mindedness
  • Achieve Aporia in the student

First Leg

  • 10 minutes
  • Introduce Intellectual Humility
  1. Compare:
  2. Ask:
    • Do you remember a time when you were right about something? What did that feel like?
    • What about a time when you were wrong, and how did that feel?
    • It doesn’t feel good to make mistakes, but is it OK to make them?
    • Do you know anyone who doesn’t make mistakes?
    • Do you care what people think when you make a mistake? Why or why not?
    • What can we learn from mistakes?
      • (Intellectual Humility)
  3. Intellectual Humility:
    • Did you know the wisest man in history said that he didn’t know anything?
    • Tell the story of Socrates (in Plato’s book, Apology). The Oracle at Delphi said he is the wisest of all people because he admitted that he didn’t know everything, while many other people pretended to.
    • Admitting you know nothing is wise because you can see where you lack knowledge and that you are prone to make mistakes.
  4. Action:
    • Have the student agree or disagree with the Socratic Agreement to prepare for the Socratic Session.

Socratic Session

  1. Can we be wrong about something we thought was right?
  2. Should we accept or reject new information, even if it makes us wrong?
  3. Should we always believe what we are told is right? What if someone is trying to hurt us but doesn’t want us to know that?
  4. What do you think it means to have an open or closed mind?
  5. Which one do you think is better?

Second Leg

  • 10 minutes
  • Choose 1 or 2 aporia exercises
  • Establish Aporia

Activity 1: Admit the Leak, or Sink the Ship

The goal is to show the student they don’t know what they think they know. The teacher must act as a counter to whatever the student says. Aporia is a simulated doubt, a state of confusion after a logical impasse.

Use the metaphor of a captain’s boat. If a captain sees a leak, he can deny it or admit it. It’s in his best interest to admit it, then try to fix it. In the following activities, the “leak” is in the form of the “Clarity” description.

The metaphor shows that a leak can sink the ship if the captain denies the truth. It’s like a brain that denies facts and causes damage to people and situations. Thus, the mnemonic “Admit the leak, or sink the ship” is a warning to students: admit they don’t know something and prevent harm to themselves or others.

Aporia 1: Illusion of Explanatory Depth

This demonstrates how people think they know something, but they discover they don’t know what they thought.

  1. Challenge: Ask the student to rate their knowledge of how a zipper works.
  2. Perform: Give the student a piece of paper and ask them to draw a diagram of the process. “Show exactly how the two parts become one, and explain why they don’t pull apart.”
  3. Clarity: The student only understands the function, not the mechanism.
  4. Lesson: Just because you know how to use a zipper doesn’t mean you understand the mechanics.
  5. Mnemonic: The zipper is easier to pull than to prove.

Aporia 2: Definitions

This shows the student that they must know how to define things before making use of them.

  1. Challenge: Ask the student to define what “good music” is.
  2. Perform: No matter what the student says, counter it with a question.
  3. Clarity: They will eventually come to a sense of loss (aporia).
  4. Lesson: If you are using big words that you can’t define, you are using a map that you can’t read. You must be able to define what you know, or you will become lost.
  5. Mnemonic: A map without a legend is just a piece of paper.

Aporia 3: Perception Gap

This shows the student that even their brain can be against them.

  1. Challenge: Ask the student to watch a 10-second video of a complex scene, like a busy kitchen.
  2. Perform: Ask the student details about something that never happened in the video.
    • Cat Video: Ask the student to describe the man who stopped running during the video. (There was no such man in the video.)
  3. Clarity: The brain often “fills in the blanks”, even if something never happened or isn’t true.
  4. Lesson: Your brain process everything that happens. It’s important to be aware that sometimes they can be fooled.
  5. Mnemonic: Gaps filled, brains saved.

Extension: The Back of a Mug

  1. Ask the student to describe the back of a mug from where they are seated. They can’t move, and the mug must be new to them.
  2. Explain that the student isn’t actually seeing the back, but their heart is imagining it based on the front.

Aporia 4: Sensory Illusions 1: Sight

This demonstrates that the senses and the brain work together to deliver illusions.

  1. Challenge: Show a video or photo exhibiting an example of a fata morgana.
  2. Perform: Ask the student to explain what is happening.
  3. Clarity: A fata morgana happens because of light bending in the atmosphere. The brain fills in the blanks, but it’s a confusing message.
  4. Lesson: Your senses and brain are fooled by an optical illusion called a mirage.
  5. Mnemonic: See through illusions.

Aporia 4: Sensory Illusions 2: Taste

This shows that the sense of taste cannot be trusted.

  1. Challenge: Take a The Taste Test while blindfolded and with the nose pinched.
  2. Perform: Ask the student to accurately describe the food items consumed.
  3. Clarity: The senses of smell and taste work together. When one is blocked, the other can be affected.
  4. Lesson: Our expectations are what we want to happen, but actuality is what actually happens. When they are different, we experience emotional affectations.
  5. Mnemonic: Trust, but verify. Expect, but manage.

Aporia 5: AI or Human?

This shows how difficult it is to tell the difference between AI and real life. Don’t believe what you see!

  1. Challenge: Use the following websites to test how well you can detect AI.
  2. Perform: Find the AI.
  3. Clarity: We may feel like we know something, but we are not always right.
  4. Lesson: AI is great at copying reality. People might use AI to trick and lie to you.
  5. Mnemonic: What we feel is not real.

Third Leg

  • 5 minutes
  • Review
  1. Bloom’s Review
  2. What did you learn?
    • Aporia
    • Admit the Leak, or Sink the Ship
    • Intellectual Humility and Resilience
    • Open-mindedness
  3. How will you remember what you learned?

2026-05-10 17:42