Synthisophy 527 

Lesson 1: Synthisophy and Mission

 

      Synthisophy and Mission
      Show the site: http://www.synthisophy.com/synthisophy-mission.html  
       Show video – 6 minutes
      Ask if any questions……… restate, roots, definition and mission
      15-20 minutes

      Introduction
      Show the site: http://www.synthisophy.com/introduction.html
      Show video through the Bell curve
      Walk through, read text, show graphs, up to Ideological consistency scale
      10 minutes

      Show Ideological consistency portion of video – 3 minutes
      Give students the Survey, take the survey, look at results, discuss results.
      30 minutes

      Mention that regardless of your position, your opinion will be respected as long as you can provide
      plausible reason for your position. There is no right or wrong answer in my book, as long as you can
      provide logical reasoning behind your position. The objective of this whole course is to find truth, find out
      where reality lies, and the only way this can be done is if we respectfully listen to other views and
      exchange opinions.

      Watch the hot and cold portion of the video – 5 minutes
      Verbally summarize it
      Then do the hot and cold water experiment with volunteers in the classroom.
      40 minutes

      Watch 4th part of video, relating overcompensation to far right and far left views – 4 minutes.
      Review, discuss….. Have you ever gotten into a heated political argument?  Have you seen such  
      arguments in social settings?  This is the intro to the book, and the next chapters…..
      15/20 minutes

      Mention that you post political/social/historical questions/comments two or three times a week on your    
      https://www.facebook.com/synthisophy/ website.  Show on screen. Tell students they are welcome to
      share their views on this site, but note that commentary can sometimes be offensive. Later in the course
      I might ask if any students would like to present a question to post on this site.

 

      There are about 110 to 120 minutes up to here, about 2 hours…

 

      Regardless of where you are, stop with an hour left, and devote the last hour of the class to discussion
      on current political issues. I will be assigning you to groups of 4 or 5. Prior to coming to class, if you
      could please think of 3 current topics that you’d like to discuss with your group. You will also be able to
      discuss among your group the topics covered in class if you as a group so choose. But first……..

      We need to discuss listening skills, model that for student as you did in your 5th grade lesson:

 

      Emotions, Sympathy and Empathy

 

      Emotion, evolution, amygdala:

 






 







 

     




      The modern brain and the primal brain. Your modern brain (forebrain/cerebral cortex/neocortex) is
      responsible for problem solving, memory, language, judgment, impulse control, and reasoning. Your
      midbrain and hindbrain (hippocampus, hypothalamus, thalamus, cerebellum, amygdala and medulla)
      are responsible for survival, drive, and instinct.

      Have you ever noticed, if you suddenly hear a very loud noise, you jump, and then a half second after
      your actually hear the sound? This only works if is it a complete surprise.  What happens is, your ear
      senses a loud noise and immediately sends that impulse to your amygdala, which immediately sends
      it to the conscious level as “hey, something big just happened!!!”, and you get intense, you jump, and
      your brain is primed.  Simultaneously the ear sends the info to your brain where it gets processed,
      which takes a half a second, and then you actually hear the loud noise.

      We could call that part of the brain, with the amygdala and surrounding tissue, as the primitive brain. 
      We as human have the recently developed the neocortex, which mean, “new brain”, and it’s here that we
      process the loud sound and figure out what’s going on, the whole time though we are primed, responding
      to, and dealing with that first influx of emotion generated by our amygdala.

      So our emotional responses can sometimes be very basic and primal, and very powerful. So it’s
      meaningful (and powerful) for another human being to sympathize with the emotions of someone else. 
      I order to do this, we need to listen, something we don’t often do, or do very well.

      Have you ever been out with friends, telling stories, and men in particular start telling stories trying to
      outdo the one they just heard. “Oh ya, well last week yada yada yada..  That’s nothin’, yesterday after
      work yada yada yada.  Is anybody actually listening in that conversation? No, they’re just trying to outdo
      each other.  Or when talking politics, in an argument, and there’s shouting, no one is listening, they are
      just spouting out their views and talking past each other.

 

      So lets talk about emotions, listening, sympathizing and empathizing.

 

      So you do your faces, ask class to name emotion, here’s a list:

 

      Sad       happy      angry       disgusted       scared    surprised    anxious     bored

 

      Excited      pain     depressed     tired          embarrassed       pensive/thinking       sick           

 

      So that is sympathizing, when you know how someone else is feeling. In order to understand how
      someone else is feeling, you had to listen to them.  Listening means giving someone your full attention,
      focusing on what they are saying, eye contact, looking at body language and intonation.  The next step
      in listening is to ask for clarification on what they are saying.  ie: You look stressed, how did that happen? 
      That’s pretty funny, ask a question for more detail….  What a bummer, ask a question for clarification…… 
      That’s exciting, ask for more detail. 

      Model this for them with your faces, playing both roles…..

      Then ask students to choose a partner and do a skit in front of the class about listening, brainstorm right    
      now, share some ideas…..

 

      Nice work, now to get to empathy, that’s where the listener fully understands the emotions and the
      situation that caused that emotion in the other person, and then starts to feel those same feelings,
      meshing it together with your own life experiences, relating it to your neuroreality, and have those same
      feelings yourself – that’s when you empathize.

 

      Greek roots:   Pathy – feeling                 Sym – same                 Em – in

 

      So keep this in mind when interacting with people, and you just might grow, learn and benefit from it:)

 

      Has anyone ever heard of the Socratic Method?  It’s a method of discussion that Socrates used in
      ancient Greece to talk politics and promote independent thinking.  He never pitched his own beliefs,
      we don’t know first hand what they were, although he must have had many.  He simply listened, and
      posited questions to those with whom he was discussing issues, and let them walk down their own path
      to their own conclusions. Sure, he pointed them in certain directions, but never told them where they
      were going, and let them get there themselves.  He nudged thought, and did not dictate. That’s the
      Socratic method. It involves listening, and drawing your own conclusions.  Let’s see if we can do that
      here in class.

      1 hour

 

      If time permits, this looks like a good time to break into groups, and talk about anything we’ve discussed
      here in the lesson…….  Practice listening skills…….

 

.     The end of every lesson will include a period of time for students in groups (which I will assign and
      change over the course of the semester) to discuss what has been covered in the lesson, or any
      political/social/historic issues they as a group they think are pertinent. If time permits, the group will
      share some of the issues and viewpoints they discussed with the class, followed by full class discussion if   
      students so desire.