Emma Richey - Joseph Mali Reading from Class (1/27)

In Joseph Mali's Rehabilitation of Myth, he examines how human authority allows people to be 'authors' and 'creators' of their own lives and humanity. With this, we as humans understand the life world through stories that we are given over time. As archaic myths are true narrations of history, our knowledge about the world is actually not a primordial experience, but instead a collection of various perspectives that we have adopted as a culture throughout centuries.

Furthermore, this information alludes to the fact that wisdom is not the same as knowledge as wisdom often comes others' perspectives and experiences. An example of this is Jesus teaching through parables. Instead of teaching laws directly, Jesus gives his disciples stories and examples for them to apply to their own lives, thus promoting the acquisition of wisdom. 

When Dr. Redick mentioned this in class, I found it interesting to highlight how teaching with examples and stories could make an impact on gaining knowledge versus gaining wisdom. As someone who wants to be a middle/high school math teacher one day, I was wondering how I could apply this to my teaching strategies. Would making stories about different math concepts help (maybe making a story about why numbers cannot be divided by 0)? Would having word problems that apply to real-world situations strengthen my students' understanding of topics? Or would separating the mathematical concepts into different ways of mentalizing them take away from actually understanding and mastering the material?

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