Reflecting on the discussion we had in class a couple of things came to mind. First was that the example used in Myer's piece, where he used Huck Finn to demonstrate how people can become idealogized (sp?) to certain social concepts, can also be used to explain Bruffee's thoughts on how Truths are created by a society arriving at an agreed-upon concept. In the Finn example, Huck's belief that he is 'wrong' to help Jim escape his master is a belief instilled into him because (most) everyone he knows agrees that slavery is the norm, slaves are property, and that it is wrong to steal or destroy another man's property. These ideas, these laws, (and by being laws prove that people agree upon them as Truths) were not formed in Huck's mind but were instead put there by his interactions with his society, thus helping to prove Bruffee's theory that Truth is arrived through agreement and discourse and is not Absolute.

The second thought that came to me occurred when we (the Bruffee group, i.e. Purple Cards) were trying to explain the idea that Bruffee's form of Truth is fluid. Unlike the Absolute Truths, which are a goal to be reached and are unchanging, Bruffee hypothesizes that Truth is only Truth until the people who agreed it was change their minds about it. I felt that a quote from a popular movie in 1997 would help to simplify the concept.

“Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.”

The Truths of human society and existence are constantly evolving and changing. New knowledge is revealed or discovered that has and will change the way we view our world around us. To bring in the ideas of several other authors that we have read so far; I believe, as they do, that it is incredibly important for us as teachers to be open and willing to question not just the knowledge we are to teach, but where that knowledge comes from and why it even exists or was thought of in the first place. And this questioning, questing spirit is something we should strive to instill in all of our students.

(and yes, I DID just quote Men in Black for a Graduate level course).