Thoughtful Thinking
Disclaimer: Here are some musings that have been going through my head lately. Feel free to challenge them or at least find places where my logic could perhaps be a little 'tighter'. It's written rather conversationally and while I would love to make this a serious essay, I'm feeling rather lazy at the moment and would rather just think aloud (or I suppose think through typing) that prove anything one way or the other.
So a friend recently posted a status about one thing, and it kind of ignited a little bit of a debate. I like debate because it makes you think --- and it also gives you insight into how other people think.
But the whole thing has made me start thinking, in general, about students and thinking and whatnot. Something else that has been thrown into the mix - I am taking a certain professor for the second time who a lot of students in the first class I took with him didn't like. I had no major dislike for him, so I started thinking about why others might dislike him. He's the kind of professor who strongly stresses the importance of being able to support yourself. He wants to teach you how to logically reason out your viewpoint. This means that he will constantly argue with you. He said, he doesn't want to change your viewpoint. You do not have to change your opinion. You just need to learn how to support yourself. Obviously this is a great skill to have.
However, I think another great skill to have is the ability to see the other side's viewpoint... what I would term as flexible thinking.
There is one particular reason why this skill is good: understand the other side's viewpoint helps you prepare to defend your own.
And there is another reason which I think is even more important than that --- that understanding the other side's viewpoint forces you to acknowledge another person's or another group's logic and way of thinking, and ultimately helps you understand --- let's not call them the "other" side this time, let's say --- a person. And then maybe through understanding a person - your neighbor - way can create a tighter community that respects each other and gets along better. Maybe I'm being idealistic here, but I think idealism is a good thing. Idealism gives you goals to reach for; realism allows you to accept what's possible so you don't, say, overspend your budget trying to make some unattainable ideal happen.
Here's one major kink: sometimes I feel like people don't want to think.
I was talking to someone the other day about how universities used to be - a place to learn how to think.
Now, it seems universities are a place to go because you have to, because it's part the prescribed method for attaining that dream job. While I don't see anything wrong with doing something because it's part of the checklist --- everyone deserves the opportunity to attain his or her dream and there is always going to be at least one thing that you really don't want to do, but need to --- I do think there's something wrong with mindlessly going through the motions like an automaton. Now please, anyone who is reading this, do not think that I am calling you an automaton -- most if not all the people I know are thinkers. Rather my reference to an automaton is just to the extreme case that could happen if someone were to theoretically go through the motions of being a student.
I don't think most or many students are always automatons. Maybe you had a bad morning and don't want to think today. That's fine.
But I do think there is an aversion to thinking. I think that some people want to be told what's right or wrong --- and they want that to line up with their own beliefs in order to justify their beliefs. IE Mary likes bread; she goes to class and her teacher tells her that bread is healthy! Mary is happy because she is paying for an education that is telling her that she is right.
It would be equally wrong however for the education provider to tell Mary that bread is unhealthy. And of course it is not wrong because it disagrees with Mary's viewpoint; it is wrong (IMHO) because it is definitively telling Mary something.
My suggestion for a better way of teaching?
Tell Mary the "facts" (whatever "facts" are; see below about certainty): Tell her maybe that bread is good because of XYZ, but bad because of ABC. Don't forget to tell her that these facts are based on what science (or perhaps some other credible source) is able to tell us now.
What! Why do I say this? Obviously if it is science it is awesome fact!
Let me tell you why science is actually "awesome" - because science evolves and involves a learning process. The learning process includes admitting you were wrong. Science has had a history of being wrong. Here is a quote from Men In Black which I particularly like:
Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
Okay, so it may seem weird that I am quoting a science fiction comedy. But I think this quote has a particular resonance. It warns you that whatever you KNOW - for certain, right now - could theoretically be proven wrong in the future. Perhaps that's why I'm not a huge fan of certainty.
Well we can't really go around thinking of reality as uncertain in general, because that could lead to some sticky situations. You can't tell your teacher that you didn't do your homework because you weren't certain whether time would continue to progress in the manner and pace with which we've become accustomed, and so you thought you might have an extra day to do it. You'd probably get some strange looks. There are some things that we are preeeetty sure about - like gravity (or at least, that our bodies will continue to somehow remain on the Earth's surface and not float away) or that the sun will rise sometime in what we call the morning.
I think I may have digressed a little bit here from my original intention.
At the very least I just want to see some civil debate. I don't like it when people get all CAPSLOCK on someone and are like, "CLEARLY, abc is true! DUH! Why don't you do some RESEARCH!"
If Sharon is going to claim that ABC is true, but she is going to tell me to go do some research, then can she do the courtesy of citing her own sources (if we are going to bring research into this). She shouldn't have any trouble finding any since, as she said, abc is "clearly" the truth, "duh".
Here is an interesting thing about research --- you can usually find credible research that proves the opposite of what you are trying to say. This I know from people who pick a thesis and then find research that supports them, instead of reading first and then coming up with an idea for a thesis.
And this is also why I say that nothing is 100% certain. If you have a strong conviction that you are certain, at least do yourself the courtesy of saying that you are 99.9% certain. That way when/if you are proven wrong, you can say "oh well see! That .1% is still there! I acknowledged that there was a .1% chance I was wrong"
Well, I'm a little done for now. I think I am going to go have some hummus and bread -- after all, my friend "Mary" says that her teacher says that bread is healthy! ;)
(Maybe next time -- thinking about the distortion of the telephone chain... he said that she said that he said that they said that this post has gone on for too long! also perhaps the infamous "they".)
~~~~
On a personal note --- gahhh I am so done with being sick!!!!
So a friend recently posted a status about one thing, and it kind of ignited a little bit of a debate. I like debate because it makes you think --- and it also gives you insight into how other people think.
But the whole thing has made me start thinking, in general, about students and thinking and whatnot. Something else that has been thrown into the mix - I am taking a certain professor for the second time who a lot of students in the first class I took with him didn't like. I had no major dislike for him, so I started thinking about why others might dislike him. He's the kind of professor who strongly stresses the importance of being able to support yourself. He wants to teach you how to logically reason out your viewpoint. This means that he will constantly argue with you. He said, he doesn't want to change your viewpoint. You do not have to change your opinion. You just need to learn how to support yourself. Obviously this is a great skill to have.
However, I think another great skill to have is the ability to see the other side's viewpoint... what I would term as flexible thinking.
There is one particular reason why this skill is good: understand the other side's viewpoint helps you prepare to defend your own.
And there is another reason which I think is even more important than that --- that understanding the other side's viewpoint forces you to acknowledge another person's or another group's logic and way of thinking, and ultimately helps you understand --- let's not call them the "other" side this time, let's say --- a person. And then maybe through understanding a person - your neighbor - way can create a tighter community that respects each other and gets along better. Maybe I'm being idealistic here, but I think idealism is a good thing. Idealism gives you goals to reach for; realism allows you to accept what's possible so you don't, say, overspend your budget trying to make some unattainable ideal happen.
Here's one major kink: sometimes I feel like people don't want to think.
I was talking to someone the other day about how universities used to be - a place to learn how to think.
Now, it seems universities are a place to go because you have to, because it's part the prescribed method for attaining that dream job. While I don't see anything wrong with doing something because it's part of the checklist --- everyone deserves the opportunity to attain his or her dream and there is always going to be at least one thing that you really don't want to do, but need to --- I do think there's something wrong with mindlessly going through the motions like an automaton. Now please, anyone who is reading this, do not think that I am calling you an automaton -- most if not all the people I know are thinkers. Rather my reference to an automaton is just to the extreme case that could happen if someone were to theoretically go through the motions of being a student.
I don't think most or many students are always automatons. Maybe you had a bad morning and don't want to think today. That's fine.
But I do think there is an aversion to thinking. I think that some people want to be told what's right or wrong --- and they want that to line up with their own beliefs in order to justify their beliefs. IE Mary likes bread; she goes to class and her teacher tells her that bread is healthy! Mary is happy because she is paying for an education that is telling her that she is right.
It would be equally wrong however for the education provider to tell Mary that bread is unhealthy. And of course it is not wrong because it disagrees with Mary's viewpoint; it is wrong (IMHO) because it is definitively telling Mary something.
My suggestion for a better way of teaching?
Tell Mary the "facts" (whatever "facts" are; see below about certainty): Tell her maybe that bread is good because of XYZ, but bad because of ABC. Don't forget to tell her that these facts are based on what science (or perhaps some other credible source) is able to tell us now.
What! Why do I say this? Obviously if it is science it is awesome fact!
Let me tell you why science is actually "awesome" - because science evolves and involves a learning process. The learning process includes admitting you were wrong. Science has had a history of being wrong. Here is a quote from Men In Black which I particularly like:
Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
Okay, so it may seem weird that I am quoting a science fiction comedy. But I think this quote has a particular resonance. It warns you that whatever you KNOW - for certain, right now - could theoretically be proven wrong in the future. Perhaps that's why I'm not a huge fan of certainty.
Well we can't really go around thinking of reality as uncertain in general, because that could lead to some sticky situations. You can't tell your teacher that you didn't do your homework because you weren't certain whether time would continue to progress in the manner and pace with which we've become accustomed, and so you thought you might have an extra day to do it. You'd probably get some strange looks. There are some things that we are preeeetty sure about - like gravity (or at least, that our bodies will continue to somehow remain on the Earth's surface and not float away) or that the sun will rise sometime in what we call the morning.
I think I may have digressed a little bit here from my original intention.
At the very least I just want to see some civil debate. I don't like it when people get all CAPSLOCK on someone and are like, "CLEARLY, abc is true! DUH! Why don't you do some RESEARCH!"
If Sharon is going to claim that ABC is true, but she is going to tell me to go do some research, then can she do the courtesy of citing her own sources (if we are going to bring research into this). She shouldn't have any trouble finding any since, as she said, abc is "clearly" the truth, "duh".
Here is an interesting thing about research --- you can usually find credible research that proves the opposite of what you are trying to say. This I know from people who pick a thesis and then find research that supports them, instead of reading first and then coming up with an idea for a thesis.
And this is also why I say that nothing is 100% certain. If you have a strong conviction that you are certain, at least do yourself the courtesy of saying that you are 99.9% certain. That way when/if you are proven wrong, you can say "oh well see! That .1% is still there! I acknowledged that there was a .1% chance I was wrong"
Well, I'm a little done for now. I think I am going to go have some hummus and bread -- after all, my friend "Mary" says that her teacher says that bread is healthy! ;)
(Maybe next time -- thinking about the distortion of the telephone chain... he said that she said that he said that they said that this post has gone on for too long! also perhaps the infamous "they".)
~~~~
On a personal note --- gahhh I am so done with being sick!!!!