010. The Point and the Line: Or how Euclid can make us travel other dimensions without leaving the classroom

Morning Meeting:

Lucia shared with us a little piece of wisdom about how to tie your shoes right. Yes! We are learning that at the MPC too! We also talked about our commitment to be on-time for our Morning Meetings since some of the pioneers usually come late to them. We agreed that one of the best things to do is to  give them feedback about how we are affected by them. After this we had individual work time and I polished (actually ended) my essay wheter Kand and Twain agree or not. I title it: Prussian Enlightenment meets Southern Corn Pone Opinions.

Euclid:

Well the day that we should start reading Euclid finally arrived. And we started with the most basic: his definitions. You can’t believe how amazing this dialogue was, tiring too, but mainly amazing. We dialogued about an hour about the meaning of his concept of Point and his concept of Line. Before this I couldn't believe how something apparently so trivial can lead you to have an amazing conversation about the nature of the universe and its dimensions. Respect this last word we agreed not to use modern concepts or conceptions about geometry since they might handicap us to acquire a better and honest understanding of Euclid's work. At the end of this dialogue I ended both enthusiastic about Euclid, worried about going really slow and extremely tired even with a headache.

009. Greek Day: Or the day we discover the beauty of harmony thanks to Mabe

Since our teacher Moris couldn't come to visit us this day we decided to work individually and even when I didn’t advance as much as I wanted I really enjoyed learning greek. Actually it was very helpful to use the cards that Gaby made with the Greek Alphabet. She is so amazing creating this new tools for learning actually I helped Franz to practice the letter with them. Thanks Gaby for that!!!

After our individual work time we had GREEK LUNCH! Nom, Nom, Nom we shared food made by students inspired in Greece. Some greek salads, hummus, etc.. Ohhh and Grace bring her rice dessert. Delicious! :D  

We had a really great activity we had Mabe playing Cello!!!! It was awesome she played some classical music works but also his own work. Later I was told by a friend that the sound of Mabe’s music invaded all spaces at UFM campus... nothing less I ever expected! Beautiful! Even Johann and Gaby tried to learn cello. Really cool!

Mathematical Magpie - Samuel Beckett

At the end of our day we read two papers from the book Mathematical Magpie one written by the dramatist of the absurd Samuel Beckett. The tittle of it is Sixteen Stones and is about a man that need a consistent system in order to suck stones. Yes, you read correctly... to suck stones! Without noticing (at least I) this unfolded to be a great connection between literature and mathematic. Ohhh how clever you are Mr. Kyle! I had lots of fun thanks to this and even when it gave me a headache I loved it!

008. Preparing: Or the day we catch up and prepared for Euclid

The main thing in our plate for today was to catch up with delayed assignments, keep working on Prezi for the book list and improve our documentation. I have to be honest and say that I was seriously confronted for the first time with my concentration issues. I get distracted so easily! It is so hard for me to focus! And add to that 18 amazing persons with which you can have great dialogues... I didn’t advance that much and it would pass me a bill later. But this chances to work individually helped me to positionate me in the map of my abilities and things to improve.

Euclid’s Preface

We start reading for the first time Euclid... well that is not quite true. We start reading the book preface written by the editors. It explained the parts of the proposition [!] and some general directions to understand better Euclid. I honestly found the exercise very tiring since I wanted to start reading Euclid! And even when I didn’t enjoy that much that activity I think it will be very useful to have those concepts really clear. What I do loved was the story of the vicissitudes that the text had and how we can connect by reading this book to a tradition with thousands of years!!!! Just amazing!

007. Exploration: Or how each book contains a whole new world

The task we had on our plate was to explore and have an overview about the different books we had ordered for our first semester. My books haven’t arrived yet at that time so I worked with my group (Grace & Carmen) who kindly lend me their books. Bert told us that just by looking at the books you can learn a lot and actually I believed it was really hard to get any real info doing it. . But once I tried I discovered that it was true! I loved the experience of exploring books, get in touch with them or as with the Story of Art revisiting them with fresh eyes. Actually with that book (that I recommended and was included) I felt like meeting with an old friend. Really interesting, have you tried? Well after this we start making a Prezi presentation to make it visible and to make connections. But this proved to be hard task since we weren’t used to plan and communicate we did double work or actually didn’t addressed our goal. We debrief the activity and some of us expressed our frustration with the platform used. (Dear Prezi if you are reading this: I honestly  love you... but why? WHY? you don’t cooperate when we are 2 or more working at the same  time!!!)

Taming the Infinite

We start reading the book Taminig the Infinite to be prepared for our first Math class. The book proved to be amazing. I love math but I also hate the way is usually teached. I’m not (yet) a robot thinking mind so the way Ian Stewart explain the Story of Numbers is amazing. I’ve been proved that I can perform better when I have some explanation about what I am doing and this book will help me to perform better in Math.

Math Class with Kyle

Well After the first reading on Taming the Infinite we had a dialogue on What is a number? What is math? Why are we doing this? And it became one of the most profound dialogues we had since we explored from the philosophy of those questions, to math involved in our usual world. I discovered that a number and math even when often presented together are fairly different. The firsts are symbols to express reality and the second is the relation that exist among different things expressed in different terms being the most usual math. And I keep from this conversation the question: Are numbers and math relations that our mind tries to impress in reality? or Are they realities that exist independently of us and we just discover them? For now I would choose the secound... but ahhhh I still don’t know for sure. Do you?

After the Dialogue we had Kyle’s introduction to Math. Ohhh what an amazing experience was this. We were confronted with Gauss problem how to sum all numbers from 1 to a 1000 in a rapid and efficient way. Well Alejo worked in one answer that result to be Gausse’s answer and it was made thru meticulous analysis. I arrived to a different but yet working solution that surprised Kyle. He dismissed at the first time, so do I. But Javier Tabush keep trying my formula and he announced me that it worked. We did it on the board and all were intrigued about the apparent difference. But Diego was the one who clarified the apparent difference... mine resulted to be a more complex (and in math simpler is better) form from Gauss. I got to this by trying and error and also by hunch. So we discovered that sometimes you can make a cold analysis and others it will come to you. hehehehe Well as Kyle says if it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck its a duck.

006. Fermat's Last Theorem

Today we watched the documentary about how Andrew Willes after years of working and trying and making mistakes found out a suitable answer for Fermat’s Last Theorem. The documentary even when you might not understand some high mathematics that are explained on it showed me how passionate a person can be with math. What impressed me was that he was looking for this problem since he was a child and he keep working in secret to achieve this personal goal. Really inspiring because almost all the mathematicians had discarded  this as a worthy subject to research but he nevertheless kept working and the result was praise and acknowledgment. Applying this to my experience I would love to have the force to keep working on my dream problem no matter what others might think and giving the best of myself to achieve it.

005. πρώτη Δευτέρα: Or the day we met Inmanuel and Mark

On this day we had our first encounter with our first new language to learn: Greek! After morning meeting we had individual work time and then we had Moris Polanco visiting us for the first time to help us to work on our greek. We had a little bit of confusion since we had our book “BASIC GREEK: In 30 minutes a day” by James Found and Moris also had a book that he like written by Foulkes. In grammar they agree but is in pronunciation that they don’t since Found’s uses the Erasmian pronunciation that is a rationalized approximation to what ancient greeks might or might not talked like and Foulkes uses the modern pronunciation.

Readings:

We also meet what will be our friends (at least mine I can tell that for sure) from now on. We met the delightful Inmanuel Kant and the witty Mark Twain. Well not in person but we start reading the following articles: What is enlightenment by Kant and Corn Pone Opinions by Twain. Both articles even when seemingly distant in time they talk about the human nature and how society works. We also had a very interesting dialogue that made arise the natural inquiry of the pioneers. We asked about what does he meant by enlightenment and we also start developing our rubrics.

Video:

After performance arts we watched the video “Vida, libertad y conciencia” by Fredy Koffman. This was my third time watching the video but since I’m in another context I loved it again especially because I related to the MPC. I learned from Freddy Koffman that we are responsible of our own actions and that far from being something ugly is beautiful. I also learned that the price of innocence is impotence, and that quote honestly will haunt me (for good or ill) for the rest of my life. I also realized that what is important is not the fact of that we got good results or not (and that might be a really happy experience too) but what is most important is that you stick to your values and to your principles. If you manage to keep doing this you will realize how much happiness you can derive from it; your house would be built in solid rock. And the story about the guy asking the girl out to dance is really amazing because even when he didn’t achieved his goal to get her to dance he was happy because he dared to ask! I want to be a tiger!

004. The inauguration: or college experience upside down.

This was an amazing event! Not only because we had and amazing scenery (thanks Casa Popenoe), amazing tour guides (thanks Javieres, Marcela & Diego), amazing guests (thanks parents, friends and Ufmers for coming), amazing speaker (thanks Dale), amazing MPC crew (thanks Bert, Ingrid, Carla) and amazing protagonists (Yeah Mpcers!) but also because it was an act of change. Literally our first official event as MPC was kind of graduation... you might say  A GRADUATION? BUT YOU ARE STARTING? Well the simple answer is yes! The closest kind of event concept that might describe what we did was a College graduation. Why? Well we had a foreign speaker guest, parents invited, students giving speeches about their dreams, a cocktail and even tears (thanks Grace) honestly we only lacked wearing togas and getting a piece of paper. But why we did this at the beginning? Well I will describe you what I think was the reason for this. Usually when you are at college you are waiting to get graduated in order to start doing the “Real Stuff” but what is real? Don’t worry I won’t get so epistemological about the subject. But in the simplest way the question is why we have to wait four or five years in order to start pursuing our projects? why we have to wait until we get our first job to realize the set of values that one learns being a passive member of  class don’t work if one really want to achieve something? why we have to spend years working at undesired jobs just to get some moment to enjoy of discovery and philosophy and learning to read the world? why we dare to call this activities superficial or classify them as hobbies for latter in life? Well I apparently I got excited but coming back the short answer to all this questions is that we don’t have to wait we can actually start exploring, think about philosophy, learn about the world, enhance our human experience, start pursuing our dreams and the skills needed to accomplish them NOW! Not in three years now is the moment and I think that is in the root of the concept of being at MPC.  If you think that I might skipped describing the actual event, well you are right but you can find that in New Media for now I believe it was better to share the thoughts I had during and after this amazing event.  

003. Dale Stevens: or glancing at an upcoming revolution in superior education.

We were told since the first day that on thursday we will have the visit of Dale Stephens, recipient of a Thiel Scholarship and founder of the movement UnCollege. He arrived on time and we start asking him about his experience as unschooled autodidact. He shared with us about his experience in his teen years and how he dropped school and instead start learning by himself and getting together with other friends interested in learning. After this experience the College time that he had couldn't full fill the joy and broad range of activities that he used to do. So he decided to drop College and start to work on his own projects. Since college loans and the poor quality of the education are hot topics now a day his decision  made him to be on the spot on the news. So we was interviewed and then he chose to start working not in his project (I remind to be something on IT) but on a movement to tell the truth about superior education in the US and honestly in the world. His movement have fuelled some of the hottest debates about education in modern times. That is why he was invited to the inauguration of the MPC to address the fact that education and special superior education in general are about to experience a major change.

Not about his movement but about him I can say that I learned the following: 1) To be a risk taker, stop caring about what others would think about what I am doing and also not to care about sunk costs. 2) That as I knew before there are great examples of what can you achieve in the absence of a university degree. In other words there are life after the degree.  3) To be confident about yourself and to challenge you and think you are the best. 4) As Diedre told us you have to THINK for sure that you can do something even if you are just starting and then you will do it. (As Carmen say fake it until you make it) [See the example of his book interview... mpcers you know what I’m talking about right? hehehehe] 5) Also as he shared with us about his flower business there are amazing activities to make money that you can start doing when you stop thinking about  classes in the usual way. Everything is a chance to learn!

002. MPCers first long day

It was our first long day ever and we knew we will had some cool things in our plate but at that moment we didn’t know what those were. One of the activities that we had was to read a quote by David Bohm from the book On dialogue. It was the following:

"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 -

We literally talked about this for almost an hour and some of us realized how much you can take out of an apparently simple quote. But we also realized that it that at the beginning looked apparently hard to understand was becoming clearer while we were talking with our friends.  We got to agreement that the quote relates to what we are doing at MPC since we are trying to create something together and that is cultures. Yes my friends! We discover that we as MPC students and specially as Pioneers are culture builders and don’t passive instruments of an authority.

Person:

Then we had the visit of Amable Sanchez. I knew him from other fields and even when we have talked about random topics we never engage in a formal dialogue. We prepare the space and made a very nice circle using a rope.  We talked about the meaning of the word Pioneer or “Pionero” in spanish. Honestly I loved the way that he explored the meaning quoting some parts of the dictionary and other from works as Don Quixote. It was an amazing dialogue of discovery with him not only about the word but about the person. He shared with us some highlights about his life, his growing in the Spaniard agricultural fields, he escaping house at the age 16 to become a catholic priest and then quitting his vows to marry a woman who literally fall in love with him.  He shared his views in such a poetic way and I learned from him to be really carefull about the use of the words and the interesting stories that each hold.

The rhetoric of Image

We start reading and discussing a piece that honestly seem in the beginning as inextricable but later showed very clear and pristine. The paper talked about the use of symbols and the use of images in communication. And what is the usual opinion about both. It also talked about how both work, one being digital (as with signs coded and decoded) and other analogical (being a copy of the thing). Well those are not his exact words but that comparison with telecomunication language served me to understand it.

Movie/Video:

We start watching the movie Shooting to the Past from which I learned the powerful images specially photography in black and white can be. I love the fact that the movie told many interesting and awesome stories just referring to images. But what I noticed after analysing a bit more it was how useful is the documentation to create a better idea of the events, actions and in general the culture that happen in one time.  This I connected with our task as documentators in the MPC and how our present actions (to documentate) will influence the future storytelling of our endeavour as Pioneers.

Day One

Description

The origin.  The fountainhead.  The start.  Wow! there are so many amazing words to describe this moment. For me it was a moment that I was waiting for a long long time. I was waiting for this even before I realized and articulated that I was waiting for something like this. I was so nervous and expecting of what was going to happen. The day was a little bit chilled but being among people committed to start an amazing journey turned it into a very warm day.

One of the first activities that we had was to choose our workstation and I’m so happy that was able to have the one that I wanted right in front of the Arboretum forest. Ohhh what else what a man want if he has a library and a garden... I’m glad my friend Cicero would have been happy to work in this spot.

Activities

Our very first activity was to get into an official welcoming and dialogue about the general idea of the MPC and the importance of being the first group to start working on changing not only our own education but the learning in so many different levels.

After this we had breakfast (the only one so far sponsored by the powers that be ) in which we start talking about our initial excitement and get to know among ourselves. For example I learned that Majo was out of school the day before and that she joined the MPC right after she took her last exam on chemistry (correct me if I’m wrong Majo).

After this we were given a set of learning dispositions and thinking habits that would join us during our journey. 16 in total we were individually responsible to record them for ourselves. Ohhh but wait, first we had to order them in a coherent way to discover what they were in the beginning. Then we had our first encounter with process because many of us asked for someone else to take a picture and send it to us, but that was a kind of cheating since we were relying in someone else. In the end each one recorder them... (mmm by the way where is mine!?!?!?!? I’ll have to look for it.)

Also we shared our dreams speeches that we prepared for this day. We all shared our dreams and even someone got into tears. It was an amazing experience to share your deeper dreams with other dreamers. We also find out that we had to present them at the inauguration, that afraid some but in the end we all agreed that it was going to be a great opportunity to share our thoughts with others. But we knew this before so when Grace gave hers she barely (BARELY!) mention his dancing... knowing her passion for dance I was so surprised so I told her so later she change it and honestly it was more of her.  

Movies:

We watched “Anatomy of a Dancer” a documentary about the life of Gene Kelly the famous dancer of the 20th Century. I absolutely love it, more since it had loved singing in the rain (my cellphone ringtone during 2008) for a long time and is one of my favorite movies. To be honest I felt somehow uneasy because I was afraid other didn’t like the movie since I saw some large faces.

I learned from this movie how far you can go if you commit to your dreams. I also learned the concept of craftsmanship and how perfectionism he was. Even when he demanded others to be really committed and demanded really lots of work from him and who wanted to dance with him he also was very aware of the potential of others and he helped them to exploit it.  He also found his own style and it shows me that you don’t have to copy others in order to be recognized. I happen to found this quote by looking for the spelling of the word “craftsmanship”:

“"When you get to be a real professional, you don't brook amateurs lightly - whether they are making a pair of pants or just nailing a board to the floor, "If they are not craftsmen, if they are not professionals, they shouldn't be around."  Gene Kelly

Amazing isn’t it?

Books:

After this we have a dialogue about “let your life speak  also felt ashamed because I didn’t finished it to read. I’m such a slow reader! =/ Well but the dialogue went great and even when I just read the 70% of it I liked it. I honestly didn’t like so much the emphasis that he gives to religion and spiritual. But also I enjoyed his message to let yourself to be who you truly are. To let your strengths and your vocation, not the one imposed by you but the one that comes from deep into you, to arise. We had a special visit during this dialogue: it was Giancarlo!!! Yes the president of our university visit us and share with us for a moment.

Ohhh what an amazing day this was!