One way to encourage critical thinking and to illustrate its\nimportance is to give your students a simple (on the surface) task: Collect an\neditorial from a local media source, or a statement of opinion or preference\nfrom a writer. Many of the new \u201creligious\u201d writers are no more than personal\nopinion publishers. While opinions are supposed to be personal, they should\nhave a basis in reality, sensibility, and thought. Facts are also nice. Opinions\nwithout reasonable basis are useless. Of course, this is what most news\neditorials have become, simply a place to demand \u201cThis is what I want!\u201d or\n\u201cThis is what I think.\u201d I fear many Christians swallow this kind of opinion as\nlife principle without delving into its basis. Let\u2019s work to put opinion on a\nmore philosophical plane as well as to evaluate its worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Start with the basics. What opinion is the writer\nexpressing? Unfortunately, this is where most teaching of thinking ends. Some\nteachers will ask students if they agree or disagree, but that is not the first\npart of the skill set to approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Proceed with a further analysis. Who is the writer? What\nexperience with this subject (of the article) does she have? Can you see a\nrelationship between her experience (or lack of) and the opinion she expresses?\nWhat social, economic, educational, and professional experiences and\nassociations of the writer might also come through in her opinion? Which one of\nthese background influences appears strongest in her statements? Choose the\nstatements you think express more than just a momentary opinion; that is,\nstatements that reflect a cultural, economic, or educational preference. Is\nthere a particular point in the writer\u2019s life that a statement can be connected\nto?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next discuss the position of the opinion as an objective\nstatement. Is the statement valid? Does it have loopholes? Is there fallacious\n(unfounded basis) reasoning in the opinion? Could the opinion be true under\nsome circumstances, or is it a statement that can be proven to be true? How can\nit be proven? By examples, experiences (related stories), or by facts? Is the\nopinion expressed as conjecture? This means that the writer is proposing a\nfuture possibility, probably one she has thinks will work or should happen. If\ncertain events occur in the future, would that make this possibility more\nlikely? List the changes the future will have to have for this event to occur.\nDoes the writer seem to grasp this? Or does she just throw out an idea without\nproviding a framework for its completion? What additional resources can you\nuncover that will either cement this opinion as good argument or that will show\nthis opinion to be without merit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look to see if the writer offers solutions to these\nquestions by giving that background information or structure, thus giving you,\nthe reader, something to think about and to evaluate her expressed opinion as\nvalid or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7915","eutychus-article","type-eutychus-article","status-publish","hentry","category-eutychus"],"yoast_head":"\n