Day 2 of Boot Camp

September 27, 2013

Our second day of classes started out with a morning meeting, in which we explained to the newcomers what a morning meeting is. I am anxious to see what ideas they come up with and how they will organize themselves, who knows maybe we might even learn something from then. I only wish that we could’ve had the chance to actually do an activity and get the new students to participate in it, and actually show them how a morning meeting goes. After our morning meeting we took a test which evaluated our critical thinking. I enjoyed taking this test, although I expected it to be a bit more difficult; a challenge is always welcome.

 We later proceeded to discuss part of Aristotle´s De Anima. I found this extremely interesting, although I have to say that the first time I read the paragraph we discussed, it left me a bit confused. I think we all handled that dialogue well. Instead of reading along, we concentrated on the first paragraph, and examined sentence by sentence. I think that we reached a mutual comprehension, although we could’ve improved in some aspects. One of the main things that I believe we need to improve on is the way we express ourselves. I noticed in some of my classmates, and especially in myself, that we have a hard time getting our idea through. It was sometimes difficult to understand their arguments or we sometimes understood them wrong. I do believe this is something in which we will improve more and more in the future.

Our next and last activity was watching a documentary on Mark Twain´s life. I enjoyed the documentary very much and learned a lot of things from it. One of the things I enjoyed the most was actually getting to know Twain´s background and what influenced him to write his stories, it kind of gives you another perspective on the stories once you have read them. I really find it incredible how he seemed to notice everything that he did and went on in his life and then applied it to his books. It reminds me of when we took our drawing class last semester and we had to learn to observe in order to draw; well how I see it is that Twain observed in order to write and recreate those observations in his books. And he didn't only do it with the places and the characters, but he actually took into account the way that people talked, and wrote his stories exactly as people pronounced the words in those days. Another thing I enjoyed about the documentary was the way Twain achieved everything in his life: how we wrote his first books, how he gave the lectures, how he got rich, etcetera. I found it amazing that many of the things he wanted out of life, like getting rich, he achieved and struggled to maintain.

One thing that really impressed me was comparing Mark Twain with Benjamin Franklin. I think it would’ve been hard for me to see a connection there at the beginning if it wasn't for the help of my classmates. But now that I think about it, they have so much in common, that is actually shocking. I believe that many of Benjamin Franklin´s values apply to Mark Twain, although maybe Twain used them a little different, like in his way of being honest and telling the truth. Well, I guess the main point here that I am trying to make is that I believe that Mark Twains life and his stories can be related to so many more things that we have learned at the MPC and I have no doubt that we will keep finding connections with his life.