We kicked off the ToK Kick-Off Day with quite the unusual activity: drawing a map of the world. With only a pen, a piece of paper and no external help this turned out to be much harder than most of us had anticipated. Nonetheless, we gave it our best and after twenty minutes we handed our creations of various degrees of accuracy to Mrs Debrunner, one of our ToK teachers. Much to our relief however, it turned out it wasn't accuracy that Mrs Debrunner was looking for in our maps, but character traits of us students that she deduced from different aspects of each unique map. This activity wasn't only fun, but also taught us our first lesson about knowledge: a map can reveal more than just the geographical features of a place.
We continued on to learn about the basics of knowledge, such as the different kinds and areas of knowledge, before returning to the topic of maps again. This time, by looking at different kinds of maps, we discerned that maps – intentionally or not – always distort reality in some way. That, as we soon came to find out, is exactly why a map is the perfect metaphor for knowledge. Just like a map, our knowledge and perception of the world is influenced by external factors like our personal experiences and contact with other people and cultures. We can use many different maps to navigate our lives and it is important we learn how to differentiate them and to choose the right maps for the right situations.
After a much needed lunch break we resumed the ToK day by watching a TED Talk about Shakespeare and Hiphop – or the power of language and art. Using our newly acquired knowledge about knowledge we were able to discuss this TED Talk from a new perspective. Next, we analyzed other TED Talks, ranging in topic from cultural perspectives to the multiverse theory, in small groups and  presented them to the class. It was fascinating to see how each Talk was related to different kinds and areas of knowledge and even more interesting were the many questions each of them raised about knowledge, like how we can evaluate it correctly and how we can go from a theory to something being accepted as a general truth – questions that we will hopefully get to answer during future ToK days.

Nathalie and Elena, 4i