Day One Wonderment

I was so excited about school last night that I could hardly sleep. I was overjoyed as I turned into the UCF parking lot at the Cocoa campus. A new semester. A new me.

And a new professor. A delightful man who is called Arch. He wasted no time in making us all feel comfortable and helping us understand what was expected of us. But he also took the time to inform us of what we would learn in the class.

Psychology After listening to his lecture and considering the thoughts he presented, it seems that language is perhaps the most essential component in production of the highly complex variability among people groups as opposed to groups of other organisms. While I believe I had been somewhat aware of a comparable phenomenon prior to this morning, I don't believe that I had ever actually considered it at this fundamental level.

Considering this fact, it is more than essential that teachers understand what is termed, "The Mind of Others" Problem. Even our best efforts at communication must travel through filters and paths of the listener, a route much different from the one inside our own heads.



This can easily be seen in elementary classrooms. When I asked a child about "mass" during a science lesson, he informed me that mass is what is placed on the face for Halloween. Another student, when responding to a teacher's inquiry as to the meaning of "digestion" informed that instructor that it was what you did after eating: you calm down, and let your food calm down as well.

Overall, I think I'm going to really enjoy this class. The instructor loves his job, and has so much to dump into our heads in 16 weeks.