Active Learning: Quarantine / School of Athens by Raphael / Ancient Greece

Hello all you beautiful humans. I hope that you're safe. I hope that you're well and I sincerely hope that you're happy. I'm standing in front of a painting known as the School of Athens. It was created by the Renaissance artist Raphael. This version has been recreated by my other father Donald V. And it's truly what I want for all of you students. I want learning to be interactive. I want it to be exciting. I want it to be engaging. And most of all, I want it to be memorable. If you look at this painting, you will see blue sky above. It looks like they're indoors, but actually they have made the world their classroom. They have fallen in love with learning. But before we get to that, let's start with our activator. Students, do you ever feel out of sorts? Messy? Confused? Well, you should know you're a work in progress. Here is the actual table my other father used when he was painting. What a mess! And yet, he had a few images of what he wanted to create. He then grabbed his tools and most importantly, he simply got started. Soon from this mess came his masterpiece. I want to ask you, what masterpiece are you creating right now, even though things in your life seem a little messy? So what makes this painting so memorable? First of all, I love that it's a selfie of sorts. Raphael, the famous Renaissance artist, has placed himself in the painting. Secondly, the two central figures, your eyes are drawn towards them in the middle, that's Plato and that's Aristotle. They are both philosophers and a philosopher is an ancient Greek word which means a lover of wisdom. Plato believed, and this is why he's pointing up, things that are imagined are real. Said another way, what's real is what's imagined. Whereas his student Aristotle, who is pointing down, believed, no, what's real is what can be seen, felt, and heard with the senses. So let's dig a little deeper with these two philosophies. Plato believes what's real is what's imagined. I'm going to warn you, this can be both mind-blowing and mind-numbing. I want you to think of a chair. Plato would say, as long as you have the concept of a chair in your mind, it's real and it'll always be there. Whenever you think of a chair, there it is, and that's reality. He would believe a normal chair that we might sit at, at the kitchen table for instance, is not real. Because even though you don't notice it, it's in a constant state of decay. And in five years, 50 years, certainly 500 years, that chair that most people would say is real, no longer exists. Now his student Aristotle, who studied under his teacher for about 20 years, Aristotle would say, wait just a moment, hold the two cups and the string. This is not right. What's real is what you can see, what you can touch. You must use your senses. If your senses don't see it and don't feel it, then it isn't real. I warned you, it could be both mind-blowing and mind-numbing. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about their philosophies, notice the books they're holding. Plato is holding the book Timaeus, whereas his student Aristotle is holding the book Ethics. These books go in great depth about the meaning of life. Let's move down a bit, onto the steps. There's an interesting character. His name was Diogenes. I find him so fascinating. He didn't want to get caught up with all the stuff of life. He believed that less is more. He wanted to live simply. He also wanted people to have integrity. And one of my favorite stories is how he would take an oil lamp. Now that's a clay bowl that had a wick. Usually it burned some type of animal fat and he'd hold it up to your face and he'd say, I'm looking for just one honest man or one honest woman. Is that you? And what I find so fascinating about it is this was thousands of years ago. And isn't that what many of us are trying to do today? Live simpler lives where we really appreciate one another more and don't we still desire to have integrity and don't we want others to be a good character as well? If we are facing the painting and we look to the left side of it, you'll see Hypatia. Now I checked a number of different pronunciations and that's the best I could come up with. So I say tomato, you say tomato, and that's actually ridiculous because I've never met anybody that says tomato. So I'm going to say her name again, Hypatia. So why is this woman so amazing? Well, remember she lived a long time ago in a place called Alexandria, Egypt. And at the time it was controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire. And to say that women had few rights compared to women of today is an understatement. Well that didn't bother her. This self-taught mathematician slash philosopher, and remember that means a lover of wisdom in ancient Greek. What's really amazing about her is that she's on the forefront of the feminist movement. That's right, she's fighting for the rights of women. Now usually we associate that with women during World War II like Rosie the Riveter. But remember students, there's a gap of over 1600 years between those two time periods. What what? Go Hypatia. Go Hypatia. If we go up a bit from Hypatia, you'll see a gentleman in a long flowing green robe. And that is, drum roll please, Socrates. And he's obviously in a lively discussion with a fellow philosopher. Socrates liked to ask a lot of questions to get to the truth of the matter. So if your ideas couldn't hold up to scrutiny, well you became a victim of the Socratic method. In an effort to get students to think critically, many teachers today still use the Socratic method. Speaking of Socrates, another thing I love about this painting is the interconnectedness of the various characters upon it. For instance, Socrates was the teacher to Plato, and Plato then was the teacher to Aristotle, and Aristotle was the teacher to Alexander the Great. Another thing I absolutely love about this painting by Raphael are the models that he used. On the bottom, looking mournful, thoughtful, is Heraclitus. Michelangelo was the model. Plato, which we talked about previously, that's none other than Leonardo da Vinci. These guys all knew each other. As a matter of fact, Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel right next door. There's simply so much going on with this painting. For instance, take a look at these two fellows, and if you don't recognize them, maybe talk to your baby sister if she happens to be into 1980s heavy metal. You'll recognize that as cover art. Guns and Roses, Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. They took the design from this painting. So my beautiful students, I hope you dig a little bit deeper into Plato and Aristotle. Socrates, Alexander the Great, which I will tell you in some circles they might say is some other person, but everyone knows that Alexander the Great wore a helmet. I'm not sure philosophers ran around with helmets. Raphael, the grandmaster of this painting. Diogenes, my favorite. Do you remember how to say her name? Hypatia. Heraclius, Pythagoras. I'm sure you've heard of him. Pythagorean theorem, a squared plus b squared equals c squared. Euclid, the father of geometry. There's just so much happening in this painting. If you go to Khan Academy, just google Khan Academy, School of Athens. They have a great little video on it, but please dig deeper. It's just such a wonderful illustration of what I believe teaching and learning should be all about. Even the statues in the background get in on the act. Apollo, god of music. Athena, goddess of military victory. Apollo was a healer and Athena wore a helmet and carried a shield. And finally, I'd like to give a shout out to my other father. I call him that because he treats me like a son. His name is Donald Thede. He recreated this masterpiece for our classroom and I'd like to show a few images of the process he was going through as he painted it. It truly is a masterpiece. Hi kids, I hope you can go up there and look and point out who is who or I hope your instructor pointed out who is who on there for you. Right now I'm working on a beach scene. It's a family that gave me a picture of them standing at the beach in the sunlight or sun's going down and that's what it's going to look like. And you're even painting with a broken wrist. That is very admirable. Well, it's healing pretty good. I do a lot of therapy. Thanks for thinking about me in the pictures. I appreciate it.