Comparing The Myth Of The Ant Queen And Project Classroom Makeover

After reading the chapters “The Myth of the Ant Queen” and “Project Classroom Makeover” by Steven Johnson and Cathy Davidson, respectively, readers may have spotted that collective knowledge, as well as different systems of organization, also respectively, were mentioned in the story. Interestingly enough, these two completely different stories still had ideas that can work together to address a point: Although these are two completely different stories made by different authors, one can still see how knowledge, more specifically collective knowledge, can greatly affect how effective multiple systems of organization can be. After all, collaboration with different people and/or other living things as is the case with Johnson’s story generally
guarantees that systems of organization will work out well in the end as opposed to counting on let’s say a single expert to make up every single tiny detail in said system. Take Cathy Davidson’s classroom incidence for instance, or even Johnson’s ant farm example, and it will become clear how important it is to not just rely on expertise, but on collective knowledge to better a system of organization of any kind. The moment expertise is brought into the matter is the moment where the problem grows into something much worse than what the problem solvers that are also known as those who participated in sharing their knowledge with the rest of a group in a combined effort started out with. First off, it’s important to note how in “Project Classroom Makeover”, some readers seem to agree with the notion that Cathy Davidson’s usage of the classroom example could be seen as an example of when collective knowledge bettered a system of organization. At first, Cathy Davidson seemed to have had no hope in possibly passing the eighth grade and therefore would not have had the chance to graduate, all due to not being able to memorize the preamble. This was due to the fact that her teacher, Miss Schmidt, used to be an expert and didn’t take suggestions from younger students, nor did she seem inviting to students to have them suggest to her their ideas. This all changed the day that Miss Schmidt decided to change things up a little bit. This time, Miss Shmidt asked Cathy Davidson how she felt and if she would feel better if she wrote out the preamble as opposed to reciting it from memory, word for word, which indeed truly went better than reciting it by mouth ever would have gone for Cathy. After Cathy handed her work in, Miss Shmidt “looked through it in disbelief and bewilderment as she turned over pages and pages” (Davidson 63) of her illegible handwriting and finally granted Davidson permission to pass the eighth grade. This was a great instance in which collective knowledge greatly affected a system of organization in the classroom. After all, “learning to think in multiple ways, with multiple partners, with a dexterity that cannot be computerized or outsourced” (Davidson 60-61) is the correct way in handling situations where one needs to, say, optimize the efficiency of the educational standards for different students in a classroom. By allowing Davidson to pitch in and help the teacher help her pass, the elimination of expertise was successful and collective knowledge instantly replaced it. Thinking in more ways than the limiting ones provided by the cookie cutter educational standard, Miss Schmidt went out of her way and thought of a homework assignment that Davidson could accomplish in a way she is comfortable with just like the other students were comfortable with reciting the preamble. To tie it all together, without Miss Schmidt and her efforts to stay vigilant, dextile, and open minded, she could have just failed Cathy Davidson and called it a day, making her fall into the group that contains the useless and bad teachers who only see children as good followers of the system or defects that shouldn’t keep their focus for too long.
Second, taking a turn for the different, Steven Johnson’s story is focused mainly on systems of organization, that of which there are three: disorganized complexity, organized complexity, and simple system.
A simple system would be something one can predict since it only contains about two or three variables. On the other hand, disorganized complexity would be something that you could not predict whatsoever, such as how Manchester is organized. Nobody would have guessed that there would be an area where all the wealthy people would be living and commuting in and out during their day to day lives. Nobody could have guessed a lot of things, such as where the gay communities would have started up, or where would all the illegal activities generally occur, which in this case was the docks. However, this is not to say that collective knowledge had no say in Johnson’s story, for it has made a greater impact on multiple systems mentioned than some readers may have originally thought. Take the ants for example, and how their queen ant is more of an equal to the rest of the ant colony then what was more populary thought before. The worker ants are special in the sense that “their genes instruct them to protect their mother the same way their genes instruct them to forage for food. In other words, the matriarch doesn’t train her servants to protect her, evolution does” (Johnson 194). Basically, collective knowledge is at work here, for the ants may have evolved to protect their
queen and such, but the ants didn’t evolve to become dumber. They evolved and have learned how to work together, how to put away dead bodies in a makeshift cemetery that is the farthest away from their home, how to throw away the garbage a bit closer to the home but not close enough for it to cause problems near their homes (similar to how humans handle their garbage problems). Essentially, the ants showed how simple making such a huge society on a small scale can be if every single contributor knew their jobs and responsibilities and handled them accordingly.
Looking back at this now, one can possibly see how the ideas in both stories can be quite different at first glance, but have the power to connect with one another at a second or third glance.
Through these two stories, it became clear how knowledge such as collective knowledge can heavily impact the way a system of organization is meant to be. Whether it be in Cathy Davidson’s small classroom example containing a teacher and student desperately in need of a new solution to guarantee passing the eigth grade, or in Steven Johnson’s ant example where evolution assisted the collective thinking of all the ants, collective knowledge is a great thing to utilize. As hinted by Cathy Davidson before, being an expert at something means one would have had to put in a humongous amount of time to work in their area of expertise. It just wouldn’t be feasible for Miss Schmidt to have assumed position of maximum authority 100% of the time since it would have meant failing one of her students, which implies that she was not able to get her entire class to pass and can harm her reputation as a good teacher that meets everyone’s needs. Also, it definitely would not have worked out in the ant colony for ants work to feed the colony and such like a working husband/wife would for their family. With all those ants going in and out of small tight spaces and managing the flow of resources as well as keeping the queen ant out of harm’s way, it would only be ideal for every single ant to communicate
in some shape or form as to prevent catastrophic mistakes. It would not end well if the ants led the queen out the exit to the surface that’s letting in tons of water instead of the escape exit meant for emergencies due to lack of communication and effective sharing of knowledge of where all the exits are as to not risk letting the only one capable of replacing a whole species of ants die.