02/25/20 Sampson Zeng PD 5

Aim: How is the psychology of memory and authority portrayed in Chapter 7 of Animal Farm?

Do Now: Pair - Share

1) What makes a good leader?

2) Is there ever a point where a leader needs to push through their vision despite the cost?

3) What cost is too great? How do you know?

Notes:

Today we went over how memory and authority was portrayed in Animal Farm and why what happened was possible. We watched a video on the Milgram Shock Experiment which was an experiment created by Milgram to explain how the Germans could do such terrible things during WWII even when it went against their moral beliefs and how the power of authority could affect what judgments we make. The Milgram experiment showed an authority figure (the person in charge of the experiment) who gave a volunteer a bunch of questions to ask the learner, and when the learner would answer incorrectly, he would receive a shock. The volunteer was in control of the machine that gave the learner shocks, and most volunteers would continue to follow the orders to keep on going with the experiment even though the learner was clearly in pain which shows that humans are most likely to follow an authority's orders whether or not it feels right to us. (The learner was not actually shocked and acted in pain to trick the volunteer) This relates to Animal Farm because Napoleon is the authority figure while the dogs are the volunteer shocking the learner. Napoleon gives orders to the dogs to kill and scare the animals (volunteers) who just follow his order without knowing what cruel crimes they are committing. Next we went over again what makes a good leader and most of the class decided that fear is only effective in the short term for leaders when trying to maintain their leadership. We agreed that respect is what get subjects/followers to listen and back up their leader since everyone has a limit to how much they fear something or someone. Next, we went over Stalin's Five Year Plan and discussed how it relates to the windmill the animals are trying to build. The windmill was suppose to lessen the amount of work the animals needed to do and better their lives while the 5-Year Plan was suppose to help industrialize the U.S.S.R much more quickly and better the lives of soviet citizens. Finally, we watched a video about memory and if we are able to trust it. Fake memories can be formed really easily and the more we try to remember something, the more false it can become. 

Reflection: 

Today, I learned that people are really easily influenced by authorities to do things they might not agree with and that we should be more careful about the decisions we make and not do anything that is against what we believe in. I also learned that to be a strong leader, you must act with respect and not fear. I learned about the influence of authority on humans in order to help me understand how it can affect the decisions we make. Hopefully from this I can learn to make better decisions that are based on what I believe in. I will use what I learned today to help better my decisions I make and not just aimlessly follow instructions without knowing how it might affect myself and others.