TOK (Theory of Knowledge) Essay Example

In school, students are forced to take many courses to meet the minimum requirement to graduate. Even today, one can say that most of the classes they are taking are useless. The material in which they are forced to suck on their heads are completely meaningless, especially when they can't apply this concept in the real world. Examples of these “concepts” are some math and art with respect to English literature. Most of the objectives, teachers are teaching in their classes are useless. At most times, students are not able to apply them later in life. Therefore, these ideas are useless.

Math is a class students take about three years to meet the minimum requirements to graduate high school. But is most cases, students that take IB or AP courses takes more than the minimum requirement for math. In other words, they take at least for than 4 years of math. All of these “extra” years of math are useless, since these students probably won't even apply these concepts as they took the time to learn all these years into action. The knowledge then becomes diminished. For example, in trigonometry, students learn the concept of the Pythagorean Theorem. The formula for this is a^2+b^2=C^2. This knowledge is useless because students cannot use this concept in real life in math classes or any type of engineering jobs. This makes the use of this knowledge are really low. One can argue that students can relate this in their real life situations by finding the distance from your home to school where, the post office is 3 miles west of your home, and your school is 2 miles north of the post office (A word problem I found online). This is just an imaginary word problem that makes it seem like you can apply his concept in the real world. Are you really ever going to find the distance from your home to your school? In most cases, you just go to the school because it is your neighborhood school of the school of your dream. You will never have the intention of finding how far the distance it is. Therefore, you will not use the Pythagorean Theorem formula, which will then be a diminished knowledge.

Another knowledge in math that can be considered diminished are logarithms. “Logarithms are the "opposite" of exponential, just as subtraction is the opposite of addition and division is the opposite of multiplication. Logs "undo" exponentials. Technically speaking, logs are the inverses of exponentials.” Let's start off how this applies to the real world. Well, thanks to logarithms, it is used in many areas of engineering and computer science. Through these types of wonderful jobs we have amazing technology like bridges, buildings, computers, cars and many more. Especially during this time of era, we heavily depend on these type of equipment’s. With logarithms, we could also measure earthquakes using the Richter scale. Logarithms applies to the world, but its knowledge doesn't apply to many people in the world. Without the use of the things provided above, no other normal human being will ever apply it to his or her life. The knowledge that the person had remembered when he or she was taught in class will be forgotten later in tab future. You could basically ask any adult with any profession besides engineering and science if they remember logarithms and you should mostly get the answer it being forgotten. Even most parents could agree with this. Most of the kids sometimes have trouble with these types of problems like logarithms so they turn to their parents. Sometimes it's useless to them because even their parents can't even help them, so why would they bother. Does that make the knowledge of logarithms are diminished the parent’s mind? Ostensibly, the knowledge is diminished.

Art, with respect to English Literature is useless since no one is going to apply its value later in the real world. Shakespeare is well known in the English literature world, especially between the 15th and 16th century. It is greatly valued at English classes today, but how is it valued at the present time we are living today. Where do we see the use of Shakespearean language at this time of age? It is obvious that no one ever uses this type of language at this time of era. If one does, no one would comprehend what he or she is saying. Since no one is using Shakespearean language at this time of era, doesn’t this make the knowledge of Shakespeare diminished? If so, why is still being taught in English classes today if student are not able to apply this knowledge in the world that they currently live in. One could argue that we definitely use the Shakespearean language today, but we aren’t aware of it. For example, Shakespeare’s plays are still being taught because, “The language is rich, the characters are complex and many of his basic themes – love, treachery, honor, bravery and political intrigue” (Craven). Also, he had developed many common words you might have used, but aren’t aware of like, “assassination”. In rebuttal to this claim, even though Shakespeare is probably considered the “greatest writer in the history of language” (Craven), there is still no point of forcing students “mastering” his work, especially if students will never acknowledge his work, even if they use his ‘words’. They probably won’t even remember it was his work when passing through it. The knowledge from there, will be diminished.

Another concept in English literature that is useless is analyzing the “author’s choices” when reading a novel or article. For example, in IB English classes, students are required to write essays from novels like The Sorrow of War or The Wind up Bird. In their essays, they are required to evaluate the author’s choices when including some type of scene in it. When evaluating, students should consider why these choices have been made. This is where the knowledge becomes diminished because no one could clearly understand why the author made that decision when including a scene. Students would then have to make an “educated” guess on why it was made and analyze it without knowing he or she is correct. Even if the student does evaluate it, how can they apply it in their real life? What if what the student’s interpretation is far different from the author? Isn’t the whole point of evaluating the author’s choices is to teach a student the values? All the student is doing here is making educated inferences about what the auto is trying to say. They student here doesn’t learn anything. Therefore, the knowledge the author is trying to teach to the reader is diminished unless the reader actually confronts the author himself/herself. One can argue that the student doesn’t have to be correct to analyze the author’s choice. The whole aim of this is to strengthen the student's critical thinking which will be the student a brighter thinker in the future. Well, by making the student guess the author’s choice doesn’t make them a better critical thinker. If anything, it just increases their ability to “BS” since that's what all students been doing when writing essays. Students could agree when graduating high school, one skill they have gained from the 4 years of school to is “BS”. This is all for making “critical thinkings”.

To conclude, knowledge that is not able to be applied in the real world is completely diminished. Examples shown through this essay are math and art with respect to English literature. In math knowledges like the Pythagorean Theorem and logarithms are diminished since the student will never apply these concepts outside from school or jobs like engineering. In English literature, knowledge of Shakespeare and analyzing author’s choices is diminished outside of school. This is because, if one were to use the Shakespearean language in the world today, no one would understand. For analyzing author’s choices, the student could have errors from the author’s thinking. Therefore, the hop from the author wanting to teach is diminished since the student had misinterpreted his teaching.

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