Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Lesson 05 — Where My Point of View Comes From

Learners discover that a point of view is shaped by background, culture, and experience, through the traditional Indian story of the elephant and the people who each touched one part and named it differently. They name the "lenses" — place, family, language, history, experience — that shape their own view, and learn that every view shows a true part, never the whole.

D02 P1: Emotional & Social Awareness D02.S2 50 minutes Draft

Objectives

Essential question

How does a person's background, culture, and experience shape the way they see the same thing?

point of viewbackgroundcultureexperienceperspectivelens

Materials

Standard materials

Low-tech / no-cost

Enriched / lab & device

Works in different contexts

Four figures stand around one elephant, each touching a different part and naming it differently — 'a snake' at the trunk, 'a tree trunk' at the leg, 'a fan' at the ear, 'a rope' at the tail. A caption reads: each is partly right, and no single view is the whole truth. Figures differ in skin tone.
Four figures stand around one elephant, each touching a different part and naming it differently — 'a snake' at the trunk, 'a tree trunk' at the leg, 'a fan' at the ear, 'a rope' at the tail. A caption reads: each is partly right, and no single view is the whole truth. Figures differ in skin tone.

Lesson 5 — Where My Point of View Comes From

Summary

Learners discover that a point of view is shaped by background, culture, and experience, through the traditional story of the elephant and the people who each touched one part and named it differently. They name the “lenses” — place, family, language, history, experience — that shape their own view, and learn that every view shows a true part, never the whole.

Objectives

  • Explain how a person’s background, culture, and experiences shape their point of view. (D02.S2.07.01)

Connection

Two people can look at the same thing and honestly see two different things. A river is “the way to the market” to the fisher, “water for the fields” to the farmer, “the place my grandfather taught me to swim” to one child, and “the thing that floods our house each rainy season” to another. None of them is wrong — each is looking through a lens made of their own life. This is an old, cross-cultural truth, told for centuries in a story from India (and in other forms elsewhere): people who could not see met an elephant, and each touched one part — the trunk felt like a snake, the leg like a tree, the ear like a fan, the tail like a rope. Each was partly right; no single one saw the whole.

Materials

  • The elephant and the views poster
  • Same thing, many lenses page
  • Pencils and crayons

Preparation

  • Print or draw the elephant-and-the-views poster.
  • Copy a lenses page for each learner.
  • Arrange a circle for storytelling and discussion.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). The idea to land is that a point of view is a lens built from background, culture, and experience — and every lens shows a true part, never the whole, so differing views are usually not a contest of right versus wrong. Tell the elephant story as a story, not as a test, and name it honestly as a traditional tale told in many versions across India (and echoed in other traditions) — a living story, not a single sacred text to get “right.” Keep the egalitarian lens front and center: no lens is above another, and the goal is more views, held together, not a “correct” one. Invite learners to name their own lenses only if they wish; a learner may pass. Model filling one window of the lenses page as a worked example before independent work (Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006). See docs/facilitation.md and docs/art-style.md.

Procedure

  1. Gather and recall (5 min). You can set a boundary, read one, and repair after a break. Now turn outward: why do two people see the same thing so differently? (Think quietly of a time you and someone else disagreed about what happened — not who was right.)
  2. Hear the story (10 min). Listen to the tale of the elephant and the people who could not see. Each touched one part and was sure: the trunk was a snake, the leg a tree, the ear a fan, the tail a rope. Each was partly right. What made them see differently? They were each standing in a different place, touching a different part.
  3. Name the lenses (10 min). A point of view is shaped by three things: your background (where and how you grew up), your culture (the customs, language, and values you learned), and your experience (what has happened to you). Worked example: “I see rain as good news because my family farms and we need it; a friend who lost a home to flooding may see the same rain as fear.” Same rain, two true views.
  4. Map the lenses (15 min). On your page, put one shared thing in the middle — a river, a market, a game, a festival, a change in your town. In the windows around it, write or draw two or three different points of view on it, and beside each, one thing that shapes that view. Share one window with a partner if you like.
  5. Close (5 min). A point of view is not a mistake to fix; it is a true part of a bigger whole. The question is never “who is right?” but “what does each person see that I can’t?” Tomorrow you will practice stepping into someone else’s lens.

Differentiation

  • Support: Provide a word bank of lenses (place, family, language, work, history, experience) and one pre-filled example window.
  • Extension: Take one of your windows and write a short paragraph “through that person’s eyes” — in the first person — naming two things that shaped their view.

Assessment

  • Formative (observation): Can the learner name at least one thing (background, culture, or experience) that shapes a given point of view, and describe a second, equally true view of the same thing?
  • Self-check: The learner rereads their windows and checks that each view is about the same shared thing and that each names something that shapes it.

Home connection

Ask someone at home to describe a place or event you both know, and listen for what their life makes them notice that you don’t — then share one lens of your own.

Resources