1. Critical Thinking: My Story
Please share with us the moment when you employed critical thinking to reflect upon some behavior and ideas rather than accepting it as something commonsensical. After you challenged those entrenched behavior and idea, have you realized that critical thinking is an indispensable weapon for us to truly remain free in a free society? My critical thinking moment happened the day I suddenly realized all the media content are simply industrial products like junk food so I really need to be discriminating the same way as I choose food to make me stay healthy.
Try to include the five steps of critical thinking (textbook page 4-5) into your narrative.
I HATE to talk on the phone unless I am making an appointment, taking care of bills, or talking with the kids’ school. I have been best friends with a person for over 3 years and we have had and still have several communication issues. She believes that her memory is like that of an elephant when I believe it is more like that of a gold fish…but she swears she remembers everything. There was a period of time when she was not responding to my when she was in the company of another person. About 3 years ago she and my brother told me they had feelings for each other. I was friends with her for over a year before they met. I was 100% against it because of all the ramifications that go along with being ‘in the middle’. I told them how I felt and instead of respecting the boundaries, they began to date. I guess you could say that I am still a little upset that they did not consider how I would play into this whole thing. Anyway, not long after they began dating, they began arguing about who knows what, all the time. She would be upset when she and I were hanging out. I felt bad for my friend because I did not like to see her so sad. But there was not a lot I could do unless I put myself in their business and he was my brother. I did not want to appear to be taking sides. The whole time I would be with her, she would be either on the phone with him arguing or texting him, arguing. If we were out to breakfast and her phone would jingle, she would pick it up and answer it very quickly and it did not matter who it was. She never let it go for more than a minute.
ReplyDeleteThere was a short period of time when I was not with her and I would text her with no response. So I began to get angry and think about how she answers his, and anybody else’s texts/calls quick but leaves mine for hours. I thought ‘we must just be regular friends now and I am not as important to her as I once was’ (identify the action). She does not return my calls or texts because she does not care what I have to say (ask, what is the evidence). She does not want to be friends anymore but just does not want to tell me and she knows that if she ignores me I will leave her alone (ask, what does the evidence point to). Maybe her phone is off, maybe it was broken, maybe she was in the other room, are all possible conclusions however I was sure that the first two were not true (ask, what other explanations, conclusions are possible). So instead of ‘keeping an open mind for new ways of evaluating the assertion’, I turned my phone off. Ironically, she hates to be ignored also so she drove to my house. I told her how I felt and she said that she did not know she was behaving that way. We are still friends and now I have a 2 year old niece (my little Nani) which is all that matters now. Lol they still argue from time to time but I told them both that the argument is not my problem so do not talk to me about it, ask me what I think, or do it around me. I think that once I have communicated the way I felt about being in the middle, they have respected that to a certain degree by trying not to involve me in their ‘disagreements’.
I have a tendency to jump to conclusions pretty quick which is my downfall and when I read the section about the process of critical thinking regarding communication I felt that I should make this my new ‘mantra’. I believe that considering these steps at all times will help me in any type of relationship from professional to personal.
I hope I have answered the question correctly :-)
Aw
This is an excellent response. I can see you evaluate evidence and come to a judicial conclusion rather than use some assumptions to jump to conclusion. Critical thinking is hard, but sometimes shortcut will bring you to a very convoluted situation.
DeleteThank you, Audrey.
I was in Boise, ID walking downtown with one of my friends over spring break. As per usual when me and him talk, we usually indulge into some deep subjects about life, future past and present. The subject came up of the future, what were we going to do? Travel, or remain stagnant in La Grande for the rest of our lives. Earlier in the year I talked with one of my coworkers and he said that he's been in La Grande all his life (he's in his late 50's), and he told me that he doesn't want to go anywhere because he's simply too tired when it comes down too it. Now as I can respect that, I have a hard time believing the fact that a person can go their whole lives, and not set foot out of the country, let alone west coast. To me it just seems like there is so much in this world to see and experience, that staying in one place for too long is simply a waste. I mean, having the traditional schedule (wake up, eat, work, eat, work, home, chores, eat, chores, family, sleep, repeat), seems heartbreaking. I couldn't imagine doing that every day until I die. I believe that seeing everything there is to see that God gave us is something that we as humans should not take for granted, because there is just so much out there that can broaden our minds, and in a sense, make us more intelligent because we've had that experience of seeing knew things, and new perspectives. Of course though, I think that our Gov. likes us to remain at home, work, and die, because that's how the money flow comes. Our school systems are training us to follow a schedule that dictates the rest of our lives. Wake up, work, chores, sleep. So thinking this way (the travelers perspective) is definitely dangerous in the Gov.'s mind, because that's not the right way to live. We are free to think that way, but we have to break the mold, that builds us to go to school for 12+ years of our lives, and then work 50+ more until we're to old, and our gardens have become the priority of our life, instead of realizing that our potential to create is far beyond what we give ourselves credit for.
ReplyDeletePlease comment if you like, I'd love to hear feedback.
Steven Greene
Yes, government and all the establishment want us to be an obedient worker and dutiful consumer so they can accumulate their wealth and consolidate their power base. They actually use media to try to convert us to be that way. That's why critical thinking is so important in today's media-saturated world.
DeleteThanks, Steven. This is a very good response.
That's why I want to go into the media(film) to hopefully be a voice and stop this corrupt government.
DeleteDuring the month of February, a local teenager attempted suicide (and sadly succeeded) here in La Grande. Everyone, the Portland news, the local newspaper, and people in the community, were gong around and blaming the cause of this incident on bullying from students at La Grande High School. I was quick to think and tell others, "Bullying doesn't happen at LHS. Nobody gets thrown into trash cans or beaten up..." etc.
ReplyDeleteI found myself writing an email the La Grande Observer and Baker City Herald's publisher asking them why they were speculating on the fact that bullying was the cause of this student's death. Even though they quoted the family's spokesperson, Bud Hill, it seemed as if he didn't know the truth either. I was upset that La Grande was being made out to be the town that was a "bad" place to live because it has a bullying problem and nobody is "nice". My response to my email that I had sent to the Observer's publisher answered my question, to a certain extent. However, they asked me to write a perspective on things that was not from the family, or the public's side--more of a in-depth, undercover story.
I began to write this column, not giving it a third thought. I talked to two seniors at La Grande High about their opinions on bullying: which turned out to be similar in saying there "is no bullying" and people are "civil" to each other. I was very egotistic on "high on pride" because these people agreed with me.
Another week went by, and it was two days before my deadline. In a conversation with a few other people, they really persuaded me into looking at the other side of the story. At that point, I scraped what I had (figure of speech), and began to write from the third point of view, as my old journalism teacher had taught me.
I talked to two students like I originally had, but they were of different "status", for lack of a better term. One was a band student, the other was a person with a very few amount of friends. Once I began having a conversation with these people, one who I'd never talked to before, I realized there is more than meets the eye (as the saying goes).
After talking with them, and drafting a final column, I came to two conclusions. One: bullying is not what it used to be. Two: there is bullying at the La Grande High School. They gave real life examples of a common concept that we don't consider to be bullying, but is still hurtful, and as a matter of fact is bullying. Words. Both of these people's examples showed how what people say makes an impact on someone. The lack of respect, and the "jokes" that hurt people's feelings are bullying.
After I sent off my column to the Observer and received great feedback from my superiors, I reflected on what I had just done and learned from it. I went into the project thinking I knew how things work, and there's no problem, and just assumed that everything was perfect. I learned there is, without a doubt, more than meets the eye. Modern day media and movies AKA: Hollywood, has made the younger generation (30 and younger) believe that the definition of bullying is physically harming someone on a regularly basis, such as stuffing people in lockers, trash canning a student, punching them, etc.
When somebody asks me what bully is now, I have only one answer that covers an array of bullying "types". Bullying is unintentionally or intentionally degrading a person physically or with words. In writing this essay, again, I was able to reflect on what it is I learned from this experience.
There is more than meets the eye. We need to be critical to our own eyes. Thank you, Tesmond, for this informative post.
ReplyDeleteDuring my senior year in high school I was really good friends with this girl Ashley (name changed). We had a couple of classes together and I would always go out with her and her friends on the weekends. We would have lunch dates and sleepovers and we could tell each other anything. During my freshman year in college she would text me daily and call me every so often to see how I was doing. One night she called and told me that she had fooled around with a guy. That guy happened to be the same guy that was the boyfriend of my other good friend Paige and the father of their child. I promised Ashley that I would never tell our friend what she had done. I didn’t feel right keeping something like this from Paige especially because there was a child involved so I ended up telling her everything. 1) I guess Ashley had found out that I had broken the promise. 2) She deleted me from Facebook and stopped texting and calling me. 3) Now it was obvious that she didn’t want to be friends with me anymore. 4) I knew she would feel as if I stabbed her in the back and maybe I did, but I thought that she would at least have a little understanding as to why I felt that I needed to tell Paige what happened. 5) We ended up not talking to each other for about 7 months. Right before summer started she had sent me a friend request on Facebook. At first I was hesitant, but I did stop to think about the time when we were really good friends. When I went back home for summer, I was chatting with her online and I told her that I was sorry for telling Paige everything, but it was just something that I felt she needed to know. Although she did forgive me and we do remain friends until this day, we don’t talk or hang out nearly as much as we used to. If this were to ever happen again, I think I would go back and talk to Ashley about how I think it would be the best thing for both her and Paige if she just told her what had happened.
ReplyDelete