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In thinking about the checker board squares and that each was the same color, how did it come about that everyone perceived a difference in the colors? How much of that commonality of perception was related to prior experience with checker boards? Was perception simply a matter of retrieval (i.e., activation of background knowledge)? It would take another experience with data unfamiliar to all to understand if a common perception would occur. Two things are arising here...1)what is the role of consensus in perception, education, and the building of society? How does consensus override actual, individual perception or construction of meaning? 2) how can consensus be dissected out to determine when brains perceive sheer sensory input similarly. In the classroom, we have a whole series of activities in the area of "Sensory Education." In this area, each of the five senses is educated with foremost regard to refinement of perception. The child's senses are honed to discriminated grades of difference and similiarities. between objects. These tasks are challenging as they progress in fineness of perception. IN working with the children, my task is to observe and assess the child's progress in these tasks and of course, the progress is determined by his/her conclusions matching "consensus with the rest of the our perceptions." Language further complicates this phenomenonof consensus as it gives us words to help us communicate.