Personhood Curriculum, 8th Grade

 

Memes

Lesson Plan

aphg8-16

1. Introduce the idea of Memes
2. Define Memes
3. Illuminate the similarities and differences of genes and memes
4. How they are created
5. How they are transmitted
6. Why they are so tremendously important to individuals and to society
7. Incrementally Expand the Student's Self-interest Horizon to include society, history, and the future.
8. Contribute to increased intrinsic motivation to learn for life.

For teachers not already familiar with memes, be sure to read and study this lesson and its essay well in advance!

Print out the file "memes" - - - memes.rtf

Make copies for everyone.

 

Print a copy of "memesq" - - - memesq.rtf

Make a projection foil from it.

 

Use a Directed Discussion and Student Participation Record.

Introduction

We know a bit about heredity and how important genes are. Genes are the instructions that define how we are made. They determine what we look like, our chemistry, sometime the illnesses we might have, and all our other physical characteristics. We can't yet do much about the genes we received from our parents.

As important as genes are, there is something else which is much more important than genes. They are called memes. Today we start learning about memes; what they are, how they are created, what they do for us, and how we get them. Memes control who we are to a MUCH greater extent than do genes.

We have already been talking about memes without calling them that. You have been learning new memes for a long time now without realizing that is what they were. You will see what I mean.

The idea of memes has been around only a very short time. Most adults have never heard of them. Here is an opportunity to DAZZLE your parents! If you teach them about memes, they will likely be very impressed with you!

Relevancy

See the relevancy section near the end of the lesson. Do not read it now. Wait until the end, when the students have had a chance to understand what memes are.

Presentation

Today I will be using a Participation Record.

I am going to read an essay. You will have paper copies of it. As I read it, you can follow along on your copy. As you follow along, you can underline or highlight the answers to the questions below. After reading, we will have a Directed Discussion, where I will be selecting individuals to answer these questions. In the essay the answers to the questions are in the same order as the questions themselves.

Project the questions. Leave them onscreen.

• What is a meme? Define.
• How are Memes related to Life-Goals and Life-Rules?
• Compare memes and genes.  What do they have in common? How are they different?
• Why are Memes Important to Individuals? To Civilization?
• How are they created?
• How are Memes Passed On to Society?
• How are Memes Passed On to our Children?
• Why aren't some families teaching their children the wise memes they should learn?
• What happens if good memes are not passed on to new generations?
• Can you give a good example of a meme? (Not listed in just one place in the essay!)

Hand out copies of the essay, "Memes."

Read the essay, "Memes."

DISCUSSION

What is a meme? Define.

• An idea, or mental construction. Virtually anything that can be created in the mind that we hold to be true.
  • ideas
  • mental constructions
  • concepts
  • goals
  • methods for doing something
  • ways of organizing
  • ways of thinking about something
  • perspectives
  • rules

How are Memes related to Life-Goals and Life-Rules?

• Life-Goals and Life-Rules are memes. They are things you construct in your mind!

Compare memes and genes.  What do they have in common?

• Both change over time.
• Both effect "Who" we are.
• Both pass down through the generations, giving more advantage to each new generation.

Compare memes and genes.   How are memes and genes different?

• New memes are created by the thinking of people (and not by random mutations, like genes).
• New memes are created very much faster than genes can change.
• New memes are transmitted VERY much faster than are gene changes.
• New memes can be transmitted across members of the society (genes can only be transmitted down the generations).
• Our society's advancement relies almost entirely on the creation of new memes, and not changes in genes.

Why are Memes Important to Individuals?

Memes are the overwhelming mechanism by which you grow up and become competent in every area of life. Many memes are learned in school.

Why are Memes Important to Civilization?

• They are how we develop as persons and as a society.
• Without them in the past we would not have advanced beyond cave men.
• Without them in the future we will advance no further than were we are now.

How are memes created?

By thinking.

How are Memes Passed On to Society?

• By the human ability to communicate with speech.
• Watching other people.
• A class.
• By the human ability to communicate with writing. This is the main method.

How are Memes Passed On to our Children? List several ways.

• Family-to-child teaching
• From school
• From church
• Media, Watching TV
• Reading
• Entertainment
• Advertising
• Watching what other people do.

Why aren't many families teaching their children the wise memes they should learn?

• The parents are both too busy.
• They don't know what to teach, because they did not learn those memes themselves.
• They don't understand the importance of memes.
• They don't know how to teach them.
• There are no other extended-family members around who can help teach.
• It never occurs to the adults to teach them.
• They assume the school will teach them.

What happens if memes are not passed on to new generations?

• That generation will not benefit from the wisdom that went into the memes not learned.
• Common memes will not be available to you when you need them, forcing you to take time to learn them.
• The new generation may not realize something is missing, and for them that meme is lost.
• Those new generations will invent their own memes, as they see a need for them. (Think: "Reinventing the wheel.")
• Those new memes are very likely to not be fully mature, and have serious problems. (Why? ... there hasn't been enough time to remove the bugs.)
• Some memes will be forgotten and lost. As a result, some part of life will not work as well!
• Negative memes can move in and take over.
• Society will degrade (go backwards.)

Can you give solid examples of memes?

• The Golden Rule
• All the rules used while reading
• How to do long division
• How to surf on the Internet
• Email
• The invention of a skate board
• How to do a Google search
• Definition of wisdom
• If you insult somebody, you might get punched in the nose.
• Others?

What meme is of special interest to you, and why?  

• How does it fit into your own Life-Goals and Life-Rules?
• How does it fit into your future life?

 

What memes might your parents have?

• Many thousands they learned in school and in college
• "It is wise to save money"
• "Parents are responsible for their children."

Can you name a meme which is common to a lot of people in our society?

• "It is important to get a good education."
• "Be honest!"
• "There's no free lunch." There is some sort of price you must pay to get something. (What does this mean?)

What can you as a student do to learn the memes that will help you and help society?

• Continue to add to your own good Life-Goals and Life-Rules. Make wise choices!
• Ask questions about the "why" of how things are the way they are, or how they work.
• Read a lot. Carefully pick what you read. Think about what meme a passage is dealing with.
• Get in the habit of thinking things through.
• Use the "What if... ?" thinking technique.
• Start a list of memes, and add to it from time to time. This gets you in the habit of thinking in terms of memes, and in understanding their value to YOU!

 

How can you tell your parents that you would like to learn more about real-life memes?

• By understanding and admitting to yourself that your parents know things you don't yet know.
• By explaining to them what memes are, and why they are important.
• By directly telling them you want to learn about life, our society, and its memes.
• By directly asking them to explain things you see or hear, such as on the news, or in person.

 

The following are very difficult questions!

1. How can this class and this school help you learn the important memes?
2. What do we do that helps?
3. What could we do that we don't do now?

Most adults have never heard of memes. It is only fairly recently that memes became a focus of attention for advanced thinkers. But after this lesson if you go home and tell your parents about what memes are, and why they are important, they are likely to say or think something like, "Of course! It is so obvious! It makes a lot of sense." (Take the essay home with you.

You can, if you choose to, do a lot about the memes you "inherit." You can choose good ones and reject bad ones!

There are good memes and bad memes. We have to use good judgment and choose them carefully!

Is very important to pass good memes on to other people, and to the next generation.

Relevancy

You as individuals progress by getting new memes. They are critically important to who you are now, and who you will be in the future. If you stop learning good memes, then you stop growing.

As you learn high quality memes, your corner of society will work better for you in many ways.

Our society improves because it creates and uses new memes, and because its individuals learn the important memes that were created before they were born. Our progress over the last 50,000 years is due to creating, learning, and using new memes. Memes are critically important to who we are becoming as a society.

 

Remember, you are part of society; you interact with it and you are VERY dependent upon it. The more good memes you learn and use, and the more good memes you create and pass on to society, the better that society becomes. And when society is better, life becomes better for everyone, including YOU.

 

We are all in this society together! Do your part to improve it by learning good memes and by passing them on to others. And remember, you might even invents some brand new ones!

 

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Periodically

Teacher Follow-up

• Is that a meme?
• Have you learned a meme for this? What is it?
• Can you think of or invent a meme for this?
• Can you express that meme as a Life-Goal or Life-Rule?

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As of: 1 June 2004