Hard to Think, How to Think

Post-IBer’s thoughts on the IB Part 3

I have not been posting anything recently, and for that, I apologise. *45 degree bow*

 I have been caught up with last minute friend events before everyone jets off for travel and university. Thus, cue all the sleepovers, all-night karaoke sessions, cartoon marathons and food get-togethers.  Coming back from any sort of social event, I always need the rest of the day to sort of re-stabilise and recover so I am in the mood and state for writing, kind of like how we tend to rest and relax on Sundays to be ready for the trials of Monday.

Back to my “Post-IB Thoughts” section, I’ve decided to finish this little series of thoughts off soon, maybe in the next two posts, we’ll see. Too much time spent in the past is not such a good idea; one tends to be more mired within memory as one does so.  Since, I’ve had some form of writer’s block in trying to think up new bits and pieces of my life to post about, I decided to write a post about thinking.

Just hard?

So, I’ve talked about the nature of the IB program, its C.A.S. requirement. Today, I thought I would touch on the Theory of Knowledge Program, another one of the many requirements beyond academics compulsory for graduation.

The Theory of Knowledge, often shortened and known as TOK is a brief but necessary part of the IB program, consisting of short 2-period length classes per week that aims to inspire thought about not what we think but why we think and how we think, aiming to create links between every subject through ways and areas of knowledge and the grade assessed through a presentation of knowledge issues and a prescribed title essay.

Ways of Knowing-Reason, Emotion, Language, Sense Perception (there are a whole lot more now, but let’s stick with the simpler ones)

Areas of Knowledge-The Arts, Mathematics, History, the Human Sciences, the Natural Sciences and Ethics

We, the IB student collective all moan and complain endlessly about TOK, and why would we not. Seemingly needless and endless lessons of just listening to others talk, the teacher not actively teaching like typical classrooms, researching in class and trying to think about thinking, a waste of 2 good free periods.  It is very much that, but what makes the IB worthwhile, is very much shown via Theory of Knowledge.

At the heart, it teaches us to start thinking, instead of mindlessly doing. Not thinking in the normal sense, e.g. thinking of the solution to a math question but thinking for not a result why the process, the journey to one. Sure, you may scoff, but sometimes by focusing on only the solution as many and want to do; we lose sight and limit our possibilities.

Some of what you learn in TOK is perhaps previous knowledge, but what TOK really does is remind you of these principles, making sure we use them, making sure that we do think in all those different ways that we know how but neglect to do so, in order to find the quickest way to the answer and to force us to slow down as we go over each and every process of thought rather than leap to decisions.

Reason≠ Sense...Reason without emotion, perception and language is not reason

TOK is like that, a session where no one accepts anything without question, where truth is a relative subjective concept and definite answers are subject to context, where one can understand that every way of establishing knowledge has its uses and its limitations. That there is no set infallible method that works in every case or in every subject and have the ability to reason critically.

We all know the methods, but when have we actually ever used them? We know that nothing is certain, nothing should be taken for granted and that there is a reason for every existence. But how many times in our lives do we stop to question them? Only when “they” get in our way, and become a necessary obstacle to solve? 

Think on it.