Is all how you look at it! We do reprise of song - that help! But not much...
When I say apple – what do you see in your mind? What do I see in mine? Are they the same? How do you know? How can we be comfortable that our thoughts are even remotely similar on any given concept?
When I say apple, what I see in my mind depends on what else I have been thinking in the recent past. Perhaps I have been cooking and my mind sees peeled slices coated with cinnamon and sugar, sliding into a homemade crust while the oven heats to the proper temperature. Perhaps I just finished shopping and my mind sees the rows of different apple bins, some red, some yellow and some green. Perhaps I had an apple for lunch that was past the best stage for eating and my mind sees the mushy, mealy flesh that had a slightly sour taste. Or perhaps I have been talking with a young child who is reading a book for the first time and my mind sees the classic two dimensional, stereo-typical, picture perfect red apple.
What was the context of your image?
If I say that 3 out of 4 children passed a test, do you think – 25% failed it? Do you wonder how close any of those children were to the passing point? What if the passing point had been different? How many would have passed then? What kind of test was it? Who decided what was right and what was wrong? What if one question was different? How many would have passed then? What if I say only 1 out of 4 passed and 75% failed?
Have you ever received a phone call from a “poll taker” who wanted your “opinion” on some issue of the day? Were the questions open ended or did you have to choose from certain answers? Were any of those answers exactly what you wanted to say? Did you feel that you could only choose the best answer from those available? Would you rather have said it slightly differently? Would you have answered subsequent questions differently if you had been able to answer the first question exactly the way you wanted to? Who wrote the questions and answer choices? What did their apple look like?
Did you pass with the 3 children or fail with the 4th? Or did you pass with the one child instead of failing with the other 3?
What does the apple look like now?
Perhaps more importantly, what did the questioner tell other people your apple looked like?
When I say apple, what I see in my mind depends on what else I have been thinking in the recent past. Perhaps I have been cooking and my mind sees peeled slices coated with cinnamon and sugar, sliding into a homemade crust while the oven heats to the proper temperature. Perhaps I just finished shopping and my mind sees the rows of different apple bins, some red, some yellow and some green. Perhaps I had an apple for lunch that was past the best stage for eating and my mind sees the mushy, mealy flesh that had a slightly sour taste. Or perhaps I have been talking with a young child who is reading a book for the first time and my mind sees the classic two dimensional, stereo-typical, picture perfect red apple.
What was the context of your image?
If I say that 3 out of 4 children passed a test, do you think – 25% failed it? Do you wonder how close any of those children were to the passing point? What if the passing point had been different? How many would have passed then? What kind of test was it? Who decided what was right and what was wrong? What if one question was different? How many would have passed then? What if I say only 1 out of 4 passed and 75% failed?
Have you ever received a phone call from a “poll taker” who wanted your “opinion” on some issue of the day? Were the questions open ended or did you have to choose from certain answers? Were any of those answers exactly what you wanted to say? Did you feel that you could only choose the best answer from those available? Would you rather have said it slightly differently? Would you have answered subsequent questions differently if you had been able to answer the first question exactly the way you wanted to? Who wrote the questions and answer choices? What did their apple look like?
Did you pass with the 3 children or fail with the 4th? Or did you pass with the one child instead of failing with the other 3?
What does the apple look like now?
Perhaps more importantly, what did the questioner tell other people your apple looked like?
posted by Fletcher at 7:00 AM
0 comments
