*Iconic Images In the Education Field*

      My field of interest is teaching and the facilitation of learning, so I have selected the image of the apple and ruler. Though the actual roles these two objects play in the classroom setting has changed throughout the years, when one sees them paired together the image that comes forth in their minds is unmistakably teaching and the classroom setting.

      The apple is often associated with knowledge. Some historians attribute the apples ties to knowledge because it has been used to describe hallucinogenic mushrooms; the knowledge aspect coming from the "enlightenment" during their altered state of mind that one receives from consuming them. The term “apple” has also been used to describe other kinds of fruit, nuts, and some vegetables, like tomatoes in Europe and potatoes in France. In recent history, the apple has been a gift given to the teacher. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was common for children in some countries—including the United States—to give their teachers a polished apple, though it is considered cliché now.

      The ruler has had a very different path. Though its intended functional purpose was that of a measuring device, it also worked well as an instrument of punishment. Teachers and nuns, who were in charge of most private schools used them to whip and strike students who were bad or unruly. Now, its common association with regards to its role as an iconic image is that of a device that facilitates learning and demonstration. It is an object found in nearly every classroom and can be used to show many things, specifically mathematic/geometric concepts.

      There is a sort of irony that the ruler and apple would be paired together in this image, in the sense that the apple is a bribe, and the ruler is a punishment. That these two separate but related actions are paired together is a testament to their Machiavellian nature. After all, the teachers do have an inherent power over their students, especially in lower level education where the students have no choice but to subject themselves to their “rule.”