10/14/19; Week 5: Response to "Cultural Paradigms"

Before issuing an opinion we must inform ourselves and learn cultural concepts of paradigms.

 I love Professor Iver's humor (BYUI) and the way he raises a topic to his students using real examples. He said " Education today is awash in the sea of boredom and professors need to have an interesting delivery of the material." How important it is to be well prepared when standing in front of an audience that is eager to learn. But what if all that enthusiasm is seen to decline due to the simple negligence of a teacher who is not involved with his students? 

I have better understand what a paradigm is. I did not know that everything I heard about a certain way of acting or saying something was part of a paradigm that had to be passed from generation to generation. In other words, humans have created paradigms that have evolved into different situations and times. 

I make some connections with this statement "American students will put their feet on the book racks of the desks in front of them." That is considered very inappropriate.." Just last week one of my students put part of his leg on top of his desk. I asked her if she considered it correct in the way she was sitting? She answered, "What is wrong?" Then I asked her to sit properly because it was inappropriate and disrespectful that she sat that way. Paradigm? Or am I just teaching good manners? or maybe as Professor Iver says "Culture creates false needs and false problems.." 

For cultural clashes in the definition of beauty, I think it is an important issue that we must face as parents in relation to our children, and also with our students. Unfortunately, we live in an era when social media plays a crucial role when it comes to defining what is pretty or ugly. Paradigms that perhaps can be changed if we could only learn to love and accept ourselves as unique and individual beings.

I leave you these words of reflection, and I will greatly appreciate your comments.

"The way to reach our dreams is also an internal struggle with fears, prejudices, and paradigms that we have acquired; a fight that only we have to win." (Eduardo Alighieri)