Do you believe that there is more than one way to “see” things? If you were given a piece of art to look at, what would you “see”? Would you see the same thing as a three year old, as your friend in Korea, or as your art teacher? Why is it that each person would see the picture differently? Is the picture not the same in each case? Why would each person not see the same thing or interpret it the same way? According to Cole, the way we perceive things in our day-to-day lives is highly due to our education and acculturation. Each person sees things differently because of the way they have been raised, and the culture and education they have been given.
The senses play a vital part in the lives of individuals and the way they interpret the things around them. “[The sense of] touch has been described as the most primitive and the most personal of the five senses” (Colombo, Gary pg.27). Touch, though often unnoticed, is the physiological sense by which external objects or forces are perceived through contact with the body. Lopez writes, “Eventually I visited many places, staying with different sorts of people. Most worked some substantial part of the day with their hands” (pg.32). Many times touch is overlooked as an educational tool. Touch is one of the things that are very significant in developing people both physically and emotionally and in linking us to other human beings.
The sense of sight plays an important role as an educational device. We use our sense of sight to visually interact with our surroundings. With this sense we can recognize objects around us and make new discoveries. The mind plays a direct role in the way we respond to and interpret the things we see. The human eye provides the brain with vast amounts of visual information, in which the brain then registers or disregards in memory. The brain oftentimes transmits signals back to the person which cause a physical or emotional reaction. For example, when one touches a pointy object or hits one’s knee on a hard surface, one feels pain not from the pointy object or the hard surface but by the interpretation in one’s mind from electrical signals inside the brain. This is what causes one to yell out in agony when these particular situations occur.
The more educated one becomes, whether it is by learning through experience as one gets older and/or being educated in school, the greater ones capability to sense their surroundings is.
Though people can look into color and composition, others can still even look into the source of the art itself. Cole goes deeper, delving into the source of the art, looking in particular into the idea of cultural appropriation and the view a person can give others. Though it is good for people to be exposed to different opinions of a group or an object, sometimes people can find it difficult to tell the difference between the reality and the art itself. Sometimes art can be so powerful that its message stays and impacts its audience to the point where the viewer’s image of the subject of the art changes entirely. Cole brings up an important question about art, however. Art has become some kind of media for spreading awareness and even wisdom at times, but in reality, “there is also the question of what the photograph is for, what role it plays within the economic circulation of images” (973). Cole might even be implying that Nussbaum’s advertisement can sometimes be the point of some media, and that sometimes the different genres of art can just be to make someone with a particular interest happy. One more point that Cole makes is that “[a]rt is always difficult, but it is especially difficult when it comes to telling other people’s stories.” (974) Truthfully, awareness and other like-concepts are difficult to keep going when a person or a group is not directly involved.
In her essay “Seeing”, Annie Dillard focuses on showing how different people have different perceptions. Dillard gives multiple examples to support her main idea, which is that preconceived and inherited notions influence our perceptions. Dillard discusses the different ways of seeing, how people with different backgrounds have different experiences with seeing, and many more. While Dillard’s idea about perceptions is definitely relevant and accurate, but are certainly not complete as there are multiple things that influence our perceptions.
Curtin’s “Coculturation: Toward a Critical Theoretical Framework for Cultural Adjustment” explores the many aspects of cultural adaptation. To enhance the conversation and construct a dialogue that counters that of the status quo, Melissa L. Curtin proposes a theory of Coculturation. Curtin (2010) seeks to “underscore the complex and ongoing processes of identification for all members of a community; to challenge any notion of a static, monolithic target culture; and to foreground that macrolevel sociopolitical and sociohistorical contexts, as well as microlevel social interactional processes, are important in understanding cultural adjustment” (p. 271). This work illuminates the conversation of acculturation and assimilation by combating the hegemonic discourse of traditional theoretical frameworks. According to Curtin, the rhetoric surrounding acculturation in the U.S. commonly “presumes an imagined national host community of a white, monolingual, English-speaking America to which immigrants should quickly assimilate.”
Our sense of smell may be connected to our memory. Like smelling a certain perfume may remind you of grandmother. Touch effects everything-Touch is the line between our bodies and the outside world. We use this sense to help gather information, form bonds and establish connections between things. There is a emotional connection. It happens with a social touch that could be a calming effect or to scare. It additionally happens with pain whereas if you touch something hot. It is touch that brings about the intense feeling as a man and wife connect. Touch is important from the day we are born till the day we die. The role of perception in critical thinking –Critical thinking is taking information and analyzing free of prejudice, generalization, common myths, fraud, and restriction. Perception is defined in Merriam Webster as "the way that you notice or understand something using one of your senses". Critical Thinking can include feelings and emotions as long as reason is primary. (Doddington, C., 2007, p. 451). Critical thinking is not simply linear and deductive, but can have a generative, imaginative component. (Mason, M., 2003, p. 186).Can we always trust our senses? To what
Parents' discipline of young children affects many aspects of their lives. There are many different methods of discipline being used my may different parents. Each parent has different methods to helping their children distinguish right from wrong. Some methods are more beneficial than others, but when comparing methods, it is clear to all that corporal punishment is the most frowned upon form of discipline. Some may wonder why it is looked down upon today if it was a major method of discipline in the 1900's that seemed to work just fine. A recent survey has shown 40% of parents with children under 3 yrs. old have yelled at their child and 40% of parents in this same age bracket have spanked their child (Regalado, M., Sareen, H., Inkelas, M., Wissow, L., & Halfon, N. 2004). Also, 11% of parents have spanked their infants under 1 year of age and 16% of parents have yelled at them. (Regalado, M., Sa...
Before television existed people had to depend on Radio stations to receive their little bit of entertainment and news. But in 1878, the invention of TV began. The first TV made didn’t look anything like the way TV’s look today. It was a mechanical camera with a large spinning disc attached to it (Kids Work). But as over the years, of course, inventions of different TV’s progressed and by the 20th century about 90 percent of our population had a TV in their household (MGHR). Television today is mainly used for people take a break from their life by relaxing and enjoying some entertainment.
The human sense of sight is a very detailed and complex ability, which humans often take for granted. However, once they take time to think about it, they realize how complicated the process really is. The eye receives light from the outside with the cornea, which then travels through the nerves until the light reaches the brain. The brain processes this light into information about the outside world, and then the brain uses this information to decide how to respond. All this happens in less than half a second.(Robertson, 2012) The used information is then stored inside the brain for safekeeping in memories, though some images may still influence a person’s thoughts. The brain is the central hub for a person, used to give commands and store emotions felt, as well as many other uses. It is the most important organ in the body, and influences what the images sent from the eye are translated into.
First of all, proponents claim that corporal punishment can cause the children different types of physical injuries, or even cause them to become paralyzed. Punching, slapping, smacking, kicking, and hitting are physical actions that can inflict terrible pain on the child’s weak body. According to Amber (2010), in “Corporal Punishment Should Not be Used to Punish Children,” a lot of parents fail to perceive that even the lightest paddle can cause serious injuries to a child. For example, lower back pain in adulthood is caused by hitting the lower end of the spinal column, which send shock waves up to the spine. According to the results of a 1995 Gallup survey, at least one in four parents confess to using an object to smack their kids in the name of discipline (National Coalition to Abolish Corporal Punishment in the School, 2001). Many parent...
Food is a great obsession to human beings; it also can say something about us beyond what we decide to put in our mouths. Michael Pollan’s research shows that we are not really eating healthy we are convenient eaters. We much prefer quantity over quality, and this is the reason why we have an issue with obesity today, however, eating doesn’t have to be complicated. Yes, we need to worry about how we eat but not to the extent where it is unhealthy. Food is everywhere it’s a part of our lives. Without it we wouldn’t survive, but are we taking the easy way and eating too unhealthy? Is eating unhealthy all we have really known? What can our food choices say about us, beyond what we choose to put into our mouths? Is being defined by our food a bad thing? How does Social Media influence how we eat?
Sensory processing is a complex set of actions that enable the brain to understand what’s going on both inside your own body, and in the world around you. The brain receives information through the senses: processes this information and organizes a motor response i.e sensory integration- function (A. Jean Ayres, 1985). The sensory processing contains five sensory systems in the Sensory Integration Model which are; Tactile (sense of touch), Vestibular (how the body responds to gravity), Proprioceptive (internal body awareness), Auditory (receive, identify, discriminate, understand and respond to vibration) and Visual (sense of sight, linked to the vestibular).
Brynie, F. (2009). The science of the senses and how we process the world around us. New York: American Management Association.
One scientist, Damasio, provided an explanation how emotions can be felt in humans biologically. Damasio suggested, “Various brain structures map both the organism and external objects to create what he calls a second order representation. This mapping of the organism and the object most likely occurs in the thalamus and cingulate cortices. A sense of self in the act of knowing is created, and the individual knows “to whom this is happening.” The “seer” and the “seen,” the “thought” and the “thinker” are one in the same.” By mapping the brain scientists can have a better understandi...
Language is a medium of communication and a carrier of culture because all that people know about their origin is communicated to them using language. In most cases mother tongues are suitable in expressing ones way of life. The native language is the best in expressing basic societal affairs. Language is the key medium of communication and it should be used in its simplest form because the simpler the language the easier the communication (Diyanni 633-639).
According to Parenting Without Punishment: A Humanist Perspective part one written by Leaon F Seltzer discusses the scientific evidence against disciplining a child physically is indisputable. In others words, corporal punishment in a child development can affect the child’s growth. Not only is beating a helpless, dependent child morally questionable, it is also repeatedly been shown to be counter-productive. However, corporal punishment leads the child to do the wrong things because its showing harmful to the child’s sense of self and can damage its inflicts on the child. In addition to that, resent surveys were given to many parents about corporal punishment and two thirds of the parents responded saying, they approve on those actions. Also,
The most important information in this chapter is: Touch is as important to good health as are food and water. While an individual can commendably live without sight, smell, taste, or hearing, life requires the sense of touch.