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KNOWLEDGE AND THE KNOWER—PERSPECTIVES
FIGS FROM MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS  

I make it very clear to students that I have no interest in teaching them facts about figs in this unit. The point is to explore something familiar—but not too familiar—in new ways, and from multiple perspectives. 

What is being modeled here is a multi-pronged approach; which is transferable to the investigation of almost any newly encountered object or idea. It should emerge that looking at the humble fig in a variety of ways can provide richer understanding than a singular expert view arising from a particular knowledge domain. The following activities will require at least two class periods.

In California figs are in season as the TOK course begins in September. The unit of inquiry is more charismatic if fresh figs are available; but they are not essential.

Enough fresh figs should be purchased to supply the whole TOK class. A freshly cut fig tree branch makes a good theatrical prop, and allows students to see the shape and size of the iconic fig leaf. The bark can be cut at some point to exude some of the bitter tasting milky sap. 
 

1. DIRECT SENSE PERCEPTION

Each student is provided with a fresh fig. The teacher ceremoniously should read out a version of the following instructions: 

Close your eyes. Inhale. Drink in the aroma of the fig. Keep your eyes closed. Pinch the outer skin of the fig slightly to release its oily zest. Again inhale the aroma of the fig. With eyes still closed, explore by touch the texture and contours of the fig. Open your eyes. Observe the external features of the fig close up in detail. Gently rip open the fig. Closely observe the interior of the fig. Next, without irony, hold the fig to your ear; listen carefully to the fig. Finally, take a generous bite of the fig and taste it, savoring every gustatory nuance.
 

2. SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE: POLLINATION OF THE FIG 

Figs are pollinated by short-lived, seemingly suicidal, microscopic wasps. This is a fascinating and obscure example of biological mutualism.

Provide color print out of this diagram to pairs of students. Allow the students a timed six minutes to understand the cycle.  Printable pdf. 

Use the following diagnostic questions to confirm student understanding: "How long do the male wasps live? Do they ever see the light of day? Where exactly do they live out their lives? What role do they play in fig pollination?"
 

3. POETIC VOICE: FIG SYMBOLISM

The class should read in silence the 1923 poem Fig by D. H. Lawrence. Afterwards, various stanzas of the poem can be divided up among the class for a public reading and analysis.  The poem is an anachronistic, and somewhat risky text, and will require some high level listening and reflection skills. This is the perfect opportunity to introduce the Harkness Table.

INTRODUCING THE HARKNESS TABLE

In meta-cognitive spirit, take the time to explain to your students what is about to happen. Explain thoroughly the conventions of the Harkness method and the intentionality that informs it.

This approach was inspired by the Close Up program based in Washington, DC and observations of my teaching colleague Nicholas Lewis in action, who is a master of the Harkness technique.

The Harkness model for student discussion originated at the Phillips Exeter Academy. It is based on an iconic oval table. Arrange furniture in the room to approximate this. Here are the nuanced ground rules:  

• Learning happens collaboratively student-to-student

• The teacher is a participant rather than the Socratic guide

• Harkness discussion is a safe space, it is not about being right or wrong

• Active listening is an expectation with everyone looking at the speaker 

• It is good to ask clarifying questions. 

• Silences are a feature of the Harkness table

• Teacher may keep a tally of who speaks and may take notes about emerging salient points

GETTING STARTED

Arrange your classroom furniture in the best possible approximation of a Harkness table. Announce with gravitas the following generative question: that will guide discourse on the text:

In what specific ways does D. H Lawrence evoke the fig as an archetype or a symbol in the poem? In your own view how does the misogyny and sensuality in this poem resonate today?

Next, perform the public reading. Each student should read their allocated section then offer a brief interpretation of any imagery and points of interest; fielding any questions and comments emerging from the floor. Students will need a little time to put their thoughts in order. 

Lawrence has a narrow perspective. He seems oblivious to the hidden world of wasp pollination. He reveals as much about his own attitudes to women and sexuality as he does about the fig. The poem was considered pornographic in its day and its misogyny is, more than ever, likely to offend. The controversy may ignite some intense discussion. Pdf of the poem.

Continue with a full class Harkness discussion, allowing students thinking time to let their ideas cook and prepare talking points. When the time feels right invite students to begin by referring to evidence in the text or to pose questions. This should emerge spontaneously and might be punctuated by extended respectful silences. Allow at least 10 minutes for the discussion. Resist the temptation to paraphrase or summarize at the end. Simply thank all participants collegially and let the discourse stand.

SELECTED LINES From “Fig” by D.H. Lawrence [1923]

The proper way to eat a fig, in society,
Is to split it in four, holding it by the stump,
And open it, so that it is a glittering, rosy, moist, honied, heavy-petalled four-petalled flower.
Then you throw away the skin
Which is just like a four-sepalled calyx,
After you have taken off the blossom with your lips.

But the vulgar way
Is just to put your mouth to the crack, and take out the flesh in one bite.

Every fruit has its secret.
The fig is a very secretive fruit.
As you see it standing growing, you feel at once it is symbolic:
And it seems male.
But when you come to know it better, you agree with the Romans, it is female.

The Italians vulgarly say, it stands for the female part; the fig-fruit:
The fissure, the yoni,
The wonderful moist conductivity towards the centre.
Involved,
Inturned,
The flowering all inward and womb-fibrilled…

The milky-sapped, sap that curdles milk and makes ricotta,
Sap that smells strange on your fingers, that even goats won't taste it;
Folded upon itself, enclosed like any Mohammedan woman,
Its nakedness all within-walls, its flowering forever unseen,
One small way of access only, and this close-curtained from the light;
Fig, fruit of the female mystery, covert and inward,
Mediterranean fruit, with your covert nakedness,
Where everything happens invisible, flowering and fertilization, and fruiting
In the inwardness of your you, that eye will never see
Till it's finished, and you're over-ripe, and you burst to give up your ghost…
Till the drop of ripeness exudes,
And the year is over.

4. ART HISTORIAN AND THEOLOGIAN

Cosimo III de’ Medici ordered that fig leaves be painted over the genitalia of Adam and Eve in the 18th Century. The Fresco was restored in the 1980's. The images should be projected on the wall and a student invited to read the following verses from Chapter 3 of Genesis for some context. Ask the class "What is going on here?"

5. ECONOMIST

6. ARCHEOBOTANIST

Students should read this Harvard Gazette article encapsulating archeological evidence supporting the hypothesis that figs were the first domesticated crop!

7. LINGUIST

This Linguist section was inspired by a personal communication from TOK teacher Jill Trued-Metin. Jill adds the etymology of “sycophant” with her class when she teaches her own version of Figs from multiple perspectives. Jill also mentions a “vital yuck factor (did I just eat a wasp?)” enjoyed by her class in the opening “Direct sense perception” activity.

—What is a sycophant?

According to the OED, the word “sycophant” derives from the Greek sukophantēs ‘informer’, from sukon ‘fig’ + phainein ‘to show’.

—Fig hand gesture

The fig sign is a rude gesture that wedges the thumb between the first two fingers. It can be used to ward off the evil eye, insult someone, or deny a request. It is sometimes used playfully to remove a child’s nose by sleight of hand!

—Scientific naming of the fig tree

Ficus carica Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1059. 1753

The fig is the edible fruit of Ficus carica tree. Ficus comes directly from the Latin. The species name carica refers to the Caria region in southwestern Turkey famed for growing figs. Ficus carica was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 publication, Species Plantarum. Writing the binomial scientific name of an organism correctly is the sure sign of a trained biologist. The Genus is always upper case; the species name is lowercase. The name must be italicized (underlined, if handwritten).

8. A PERSONAL MEMORY

To end the fig unit of inquiry I like to add a personal, quasi-historical anecdote. When I lived in Andalucia in Southern Spain, I knew an old man who refused to eat figs. He said that during the famine of the Spanish Civil War, when he was a child, "ficas" taken directly from the tree, were at times the only food available. 

I add the true story that once I ate figs from my own fig tree when money was short at the end of the month! 

IN CONCLUSION

I reiterate that I had no interest in teaching the class facts about figs. Although I do concede in jest that, for the rest of their lives, they will always have expert status in table conversation whenever figs are served. By the end of the fig sessions, the value of a multi-perspective approach in building a rich understanding about almost any topic should be self-evident. 

RELEVANCE TO THE TOK EXHIBITION

The end of the figs activity may be the perfect time to introduce the TOK Exhibition. At the end of their junior year students will undertake this formal, but highly accessible, Internal Assessment component, worth 33% of their final IB Grade.

When the time comes students will curate their very own Exhibition. It is highly recommended that they base it on the Core Theme (Knowledge and the Knower) or one of the five Optional Themes.

They will choose one of the 35 Knowledge Question prompts and in the spirit of “choice and voice” will select three, real world Objects to explore and justify in 950 words how the prompt manifests itself in the real world. The link with the figs activity lies in its modeling of the extreme specificity in the choice of Objects. There is enormous latitude in the form and choice of Objects—but they must be non-generic, tangible, and pre-existing in the real world.

Example of a highly specific Exhibition Object.
This unique plaster fig leaf (most likely made by Brucciani & Co in 1857) was quickly used to cover the genitalia of the full-sized copy of Michelangelo's famous statue of David whenever it was announced that Queen Victoria was coming to observe it.
Source Victoria and Albert Museum, London

RELEVANCE TO THE TOK ESSAY

Building on the connection between the particularity of figs activities and the Exhibition; students will soon discover that the arguments and counterpoints in TOK Essays must be instantiated—“effectively supported by specific examples.”