Monday, December 8th, 2008
The latin for “I think, therefore I exist”. This argument was used by René Descartes in his study of his life or more commonly known as philosophy. This has become the foundation for the western philosophy. This statement basically means that when you think about something or specifically doubting your existence, therefore you must be existing in order for you to think or doubt. Dont worry, this is not a discussion about this.
Recently just this past Saturday on December 06, I went to a class a little late, expecting to see my fellow classmates to have started their discussion concerning on the Future Technology they want to represent. Unfortunately, I was greeted again with our professor giving a sermon and he wrote on the board “I THINK THEREFORE I EXIST”. He demands to know what we, or maybe certain people, think about this statement when related to our performance in following and executing our plans for the model displays. At first, I did not know what was going on and why the class is silent. No one dared to volunteer and give his/her opinion unless when asked first by our professor. From feeling the atmosphere and having a quick, casual talk with some of my classmate, I then knew that the group responsible for securing the space for the display to take place and getting the dividers to be used in organizing the displays have failed. Although they did not fail completely, they have only completed the task of getting the permission and seeking the authorization of the proper school officials halfway through. There were some problems like the Dean for the building was out of town and currently unreachable. Of course, this would mean that the plan on starting the exhibit on early Monday would postpone and the reputation and trust of our professor towards our class would be damaged miserably.
Now having the story told, it would seem to be obvious that the initial plan was a big failure because of our lack of sense of responsibility and proper anticipation of would-be problems in the near future. Our professor views it as a failure of the whole class and those who are involved with it. I can not argue since many of us in the class did not even give a hint of concern or responsibility and most were unaware that the plan was falling apart. Our professor said that the most essential part in establishing a good respect from others can be gained by first impressions, most specially in proper planning and execution and communication to the proper or higher individuals. But as you can imagine, a failure right from the start would severely ruin that intention of gaining respect by giving a good impression. Our professor’s respect and trust to us was utterly destroyed and evident since he said it himself to us on that day. So what did our class do? Apart from being forced to think about “I THINK THEREFORE I EXIST”, the class immediately thought of a new plan for recovery and adjustment. Recovery for the time lost due to failure and adjustment of schedules. But what our professor insisted to us to think and reflect was René’s words. Some of us was even called and gave his/her opinion and I was among them. Hehe.
What I think our professor wanted us to do was to reflect deeply on what had taken place and what we lack while reflecting on René’s statement. What I thought was we must think of the things that led to the failure (that would involve our own personal performance and characters from our professor’s perspective) and reflect on the fact that we have thought about these things because the failure existed that stemmed from our incompetency. Truthfully, I thought about this when our professor gave us one (1) minute stop and think, prioritize it in our minds, about René’s words and what had happened. Our professor was dissapointed further when the class have also failed to understand on what he meant in relating René’s words to the failure but did not insist on going deeper since it would be a waste of time. For me, I think he gave up hope in making us understand. Hehe.
When the class had started discussing about what to do now to patch things up. Our professor did not seem to accept the proposed ideas and ideas conjured from the assessment of the current situation. He insisted to us that we would not pursue and force to hold the exhibit this month and instead move it right after the new year, only if we would perform better this time and reflect on what had happened. The attitude of the class immediately, although not thoroughly, dismissing the failure and reflecting but instead focused its attention on patching things up was not readily accepted by our professor. I immediately thought that this is why people can recover from mistakes and move on, and also the reason why people don’t learn.
