Whose Reality?

1. Whose Reality? Lesson Objective: Students will explore the concept of denial and how it changed and distorts reality.

2. Our next practice SAC The prompt: We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

3. Some ideas for you • This prompt does not use a ‘one factor’ approach. • It is not so simple as something like, • Isolation distorts our reality • OR • Fear can shape our perception

4. So what can you do? Firstly, break this prompt into two parts, • We don’t see things as they are. • We see them as we are.

5. Aaah, that’s a bit more manageable… • So, remember when we looked at the idea of objectivity and subjectivity?

6. Here are some ideas • Seeing things as they are- an objective truth, a scientific truth, a legal truth. • Eg. Climbing Mt Everest is dangerous. Heaps of people have died trying to do it. • Seeing things as we are- our subjectivity, our lens, our values and emotions and desires, our personality. • Eg. A thrill seeker, an adventurer would climb Mt Everest anyway.

7. Idea from The Shark Net? • Come up with an idea from The Shark Net that relates to the prompt. • Try to find an example that shows a person forming their own perception that ignores the ‘facts’ or the more objective view.

8. Implications of the prompt… • What does the prompt imply without stating explicitly, about reality? • We can create our own reality that might mean we ignore the truth. • ‘As they are’ could also mean- as someone else sees a situation. Sometimes, we can deny someone else’s truth. • We can imagine something that is not real • As human beings, we create our own truth and that this can often be very different to what makes sense to others, or to an ‘objective’ outsider.

9. Martin Bryant • Martin Bryant killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996. Last Sunday, his mother, Carleen Bryant, was interviewed on Channel Nine’s Sixty Minutes.

10. After viewing • http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stories/8216486/a-mothers-burden • How could you connect this interview with the prompt?

11. ‘The Shark Net’ and Whose Reality? Sally Cooke and Denial

12. Eric- a man in Sal’s life • Drewe seeks her out for comment p337. Why does he do this? • She is clueless and yet… • “Possessive! … I wasn’t allowed to do anything.” p339 • “He was a liar… I think he even believed his own lies.” p340 • “He was a mastermind for detail.” p343 • “He was expelled from school in the first grade.”

13. Sally Cooke • How does denial relate to her reality? • Has she done it on purpose? • Or is she not aware of it? • As outsiders we can see that there it is obvious that there were signs about Eric and his personality. • Is it harder to see things clearly when you are an insider?

14. Denial • What reasons do we have to include this in our reality? Is it a coping strategy? • Is it sometimes necessary? • When can it become dangerous? • How do you think Sally Cooke’s reality changed?

15. Carleen Bryant • What role does denial play in her reality? • How has is changed her? • How do we view her?

16. Your turn • Practice SAC Prompt: • We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. • Due: Tuesday 8th March • Start writing!!