Hey Tou Chiu: Response to Knowers & Knowing quotation

'Never assume the obvious is true.' (William Safire)
The meaning of the quote above is self explanatory. It basically means that we should not take what seems to be the ‘obvious’ as the correct answer. I think the message behind that it is trying to convey how humans normally accept the ‘knowledge’ given to them without really asking or investigating whether the ‘knowledge’ is genuine, definite, or true.

From this quote, I realize that this situation of accepting ‘knowledge’ always happen around our daily lives. For example, if we see someone crying, the first thing we assume is that the person is traumatized and very unhappy because that is the obvious reason. However, even though the person may be crying, they may be crying because of joy, which contradicts to what we actually assumed earlier. I also think that this quote relates perfectly to what we actually discussed in class about the world map. In this situation, most of us assumed that the world map we see everyday is ‘true’ yet we find ourselves unable to answer which is the ‘top’ of the world and which is the ‘bottom’, which area, or country is the centre of earth? Without pointing out this in class, or seeing the ‘West Wing’ clip, I would probably have never realized or questioned myself - ‘Where do we live? Where exactly are we on earth?’

Looking back at the ‘West Wing’ clip, I begin to wonder whether maps are really drawn according to the strength of countries in the world, i.e those who are strong are at the ‘top’ of the world. If this was true, then the map that we have would be biased and inaccurate! Another example supporting the quote above - ‘Never to assume the obvious is true’.

For Friday, October 12th

As discussed in class, please complete the following before Friday, October 12th:

1. Pick one of the 21 ‘Knowers & Knowing quotations (see below).
2. Brainstorm anything it brings to mind.
3. Pick-out three key words.
4. Decide what you think its main message is.
5. Paraphrase the quotation's message (in about 50 words) and blog your opinion of it (in about 200 words), connecting the quotation's relevance and applicability to your view of knowledge (think back to your map of the world and our class discussions about it, the West Wing episodes); and life as a student (think back to our class discussions about your picture of 'school knowledge').

Please title your blog with your name.