A letter from a College Dropout

by Ethos 73 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  isaacaustin

  The paradox here is that a university has courses that encourage critical thinking...the WT dulls critical thinking.
• 

  Cadellin

  Okay, I can't help myself.

  Ethos, sweet Ethos, I write to you from my office at a large, public university where I teach, among other things, critical thinking. While it has been acknowledged by other posters that certain kinds of classes require memorization (and for good reason), many--if not most--of the classes you will take at Harvard, or any other credible institution of higher learning, emphasize higher cognitive skills including analysing, evaluationg, synthesizing, and creating. Books are read with the goal of learning, yes, but always with an active and critical eye, and usually in conjunction with multiple perspectives. As far as my own students go, I tell them that they can argue whatever position they please in their papers, as long as they can substantiate it, reason through it and support it with credible evidence.

  Like the FDS? Not.
• 

  Ethos

  I think this thread illustrates quite clearly that people here take things a wee bit too seriously. A humorous, slightly metaphorical sattire has been dissected, overanalyzed, and argued against as if I intimated it to be some grandiose illustration. I'm honestly surprised someone didnt log on to Harvard's website and show me I didnt reach the required length or tell me you dont even write letters. Good grief! Obviously the illustration isnt completely equivocal to what happens as a JW. It's a comparison, and the humorous alliteration should have made that obvious. You dont have to point out that you are not literally shunned and not spoken to if youre expelled. And then people are so bent on tooting their own intellectual horns, that they point out obvious inequivalencies that are obvious to all who used their brain when they read it?

  i hope you're proud that youve dismantled my little argument. Whatever you have to do yo boost your own ego and self esteem.
• 

  Ethos

  Oh yeah dont forget to point out at Harvard you can choose to leave anytime you want and you still have your friends and family. But if you leave the WTS, you are shunned. Really pointing out obvious things like this and being pedantic about every little statement of the illustration is a sign of debility, not the intellectual prowess you're trying to flaunt by disproving my point. It shows that when you read it, you used no critical thinking skills to make reasonable or implied inferences.

  Sad.
• 

  perfect1

  Ethos career list

  JW apologist

  academic

  comedian
• 

  james_woods

  teach me your wisdom, oh ethos

  And then you too can be a troll, perfect1...
• 

  Ethos

  Dont forget to cross out story teller.
• 

  perfect1

  James youve wounded me
• 

  jgnat

  There's a story of a professor (most likely an urban legend) who expounded to his students on dinosaurs; their mating habits, coloring, and calls. The students furiously wrote down his information, and then dutifully provided those answers in his test.

  He failed them all.

  There is no scientific basis to determine the coloring, mating habits, and calls of dinosaurs. None of this can be determined from the fossil record. He failed the students for failing to challenge him.
• 

  whathappened

  I have complete confidence that Ethos will find his way really soon. He seems to be hooked on this site enough.