The Cave Project: Due September 21st
Assignment:
Read and analyze Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave. Choose a modern day situation
that you believe best represents the “allegory” and create an audio-visual
presentation that supports your opinion. Make sure that your audience can make
clear connections between Plato and your representation. The presentation should
include allusions to Plato’s Allegory and its major themes. NO POWERPOINT.
You should ensure that all still images, video clips, and music underscore your
argument and develop your overall message.
To help “inspire”:
A) In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, he describes a world where prisoners live
chained in a cave. The puppeteers cast shadows on the wall and these shadows
construct reality for the prisoners. One of the prisoners breaks free and leaves the
cave. At first, he is blinded by the sun and apprehensive about the new world. The
shadows in the cave had always seemed so real to him. After he has spent some
time in this new world, he realizes that his entire existence has been controlled by
others and he now knows the truth. Thousands of years later, is this allegory
relevant to our lives today? Do we live in a cave where reality is constructed by
someone else? Has the internet, public education, and improvements in
transportation metaphorically killed the puppeteer? Is our world more transparent
than it ever has been?
B) The essential point is that the prisoners in the cave are not seeing reality, but
only a shadowy representation of it. The importance of the allegory lies in Plato's
belief that there are invisible truths lying under the apparent surface of things
which only the most enlightened can grasp. Used to the world of illusion in the
cave, the prisoners at first resist enlightenment, as students resist education. But
those who can achieve enlightenment deserve to be the leaders and rulers of all the
rest. At the end of the passage, Plato expresses another of his favorite ideas: that
education is not a process of putting knowledge into empty minds, but of making
people realize that which they already know. This notion that truth is somehow
embedded in our minds was also powerfully influential for many centuries.
Requirements: - 3 minute minimum requirement
- School appropriate material (visuals and audio)
- Must be a modern-day interpretation of The
Allegory of the Cave
CATEGORY
Presentation
4
Well-rehearsed
with smooth
delivery that
holds audience
attention.
3
Rehearsed with
fairly smooth
delivery that
holds audience
attention most of
the time.
Makes good use
of font, color,
graphics, effects,
etc. to enhance to
presentation.
2
Delivery not
smooth, but able
to maintain
interest of the
audience most of
the time.
Makes use of
font, color,
graphics, effects,
etc. but
occasionally
these detract from
the presentation
content.
Four misspellings
and/or
grammatical
errors.
1
Delivery not
smooth and
audience
attention often
lost.
Attractiveness
Makes excellent
use of font, color,
graphics, effects,
etc. to enhance
the presentation.
Mechanics
No misspellings
or grammatical
errors.
Three or fewer
misspellings
and/or
mechanical
errors.
Requirements
All requirements
are met and
exceeded.
All requirements
are met.
One requirement
was not
completely met.
More than one
requirement was
not completely
met.
Originality
Product shows a
large amount of
original thought.
Ideas are creative
and inventive.
Product shows
some original
thought. Work
shows new ideas
and insights.
Uses other
people\'s ideas,
but does not give
them credit.
Covers topic indepth with details
and examples.
Subject
knowledge is
excellent.
Includes essential
knowledge about
the topic. Subject
knowledge
appears to be
good.
Uses other
people\'s ideas
(giving them
credit), but there
is little evidence
of original
thinking.
Includes essential
information about
the topic but there
are 1-2 factual
errors.
Content
Use of font,
color, graphics,
effects etc. but
these often
distract from the
presentation
content.
More than 4
errors in spelling
or grammar.
Content is
minimal OR there
are several
factual errors.