{"id":5773,"date":"2015-09-17T13:21:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T20:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5773"},"modified":"2015-09-17T17:19:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T00:19:07","slug":"what-if-they-love-their-children-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/what-if-they-love-their-children-too\/","title":{"rendered":"What if they love their children too?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Russians\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1985 Sting released a single titled, \u201cRussians.\u201d\u00a0 While reading through Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools <\/em>by Elder, I couldn\u2019t stop singing the line from the song, \u201cI hope the Russians love their children too.\u201d\u00a0 By describing his dream, Sting was also challenging his hearers to practice critical thinking.\u00a0 As Elder states, \u201cEveryone thinks; it is our nature to [think critically]. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced.\u201d1\u00a0 In the height of the Cold War, it seems to me, that Sting was confronting the Problem of Sociocentric Thinking<\/em> by exposing the West\u2019s failure to think beyond her traditional prejudices.\u00a0 Who in the Reagan Administration would ever publicly state that the parents of the Evil Empire might actually love their children too.\u00a0 The process of becoming a critical thinker is the process of confronting one\u2019s own biases, distortions, lack of information, and personal prejudices.\u00a0 It challenges me to ask today, who else must love their children too?\u00a0 Do Iraqi\u2019s love their children too?\u00a0 Do Syrians?\u00a0 Palestinians? My muslim neighbor who lives across the street from me? If all one does is watch the presidential candidate debates on television like the one last night, and not think critically, one would not ever guess that refugees might love their children too!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the risk of sounding preachy, of course Jesus was showing what it really means to love our neighbor when he told the Parable of the Good Samaritan.\u00a0 After reading this book I am convinced that through describing the actions of that Samaritan, Jesus was also confronting the different psychological standards within what Elder calls, The Problem of Egocentric Thinking.\u00a0 Many people I pastor today struggle with the same thinking (and belief!) that the lawyer in Luke must have fallen victim of:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s true because I believe it,\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s true because we believe it,\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s true because I want to believe it,\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s true because I have always believed it,\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s true because it is my selfish interest to believe it.\u201d\u00a0 We just started a new series at The Hub to confront this very thing.3<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This, by far, has been the easiest book to read and understand.\u00a0 However, for me, this is also the most difficult book to put into practice.\u00a0 Learning how to read properly \u00e0 la Adler is like forcing myself to work out at the gym.\u00a0 Once I overcome all my excuses not to, I do it and always feel better afterwards.\u00a0 Reading how to practice visual ethnography was confusing at first, but I find that feelings and senses are easy for me to express and relate to when viewing moving or still images.\u00a0 However, this book, because it reads like a cookbook full of delicious meals, is simple to read, but like my attempts to make a gourmet meal, these various steps take skill, precision, and time\u2026a lot of time.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know many people who are, \u201cself-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective\u201d2 when it comes to their thinking.\u00a0 Consequently, it is very obvious to me why we would be assigned this book at the start of our DMin program.\u00a0 This book, like Turabian, will become a practical reference for me for the next three years and beyond.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My favorite parts of the book are the graphics.\u00a0 I wish I could print out The Elements of Thought, Three Levels of Thought, Intellectual Traits or Virtues, and The Standards-The Elements-Intellectual Traits and post them as posters in my classroom and church office.\u00a0 The hardest part of this book for me is the Analyzing & Assessing Research section.\u00a0 Because I am starting this DMin program and excited to \u201cdo\u201d research, I paid particular attention to this chapter.\u00a0 For me, I\u2019m finding that formulating the question or problem for this first leg of our journey to be quite a struggle.\u00a0 I am really looking forward to Hong Kong and meeting everyone in person.\u00a0 I am also looking forward to all the conversations that will help one another put many of the steps in this book into practice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"400\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1 Paul, Richard; Elder, Linda (2014-10-20). Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools (Thinker’s Guide Library) (Kindle Locations 29-30). Foundation for Critical Thinking. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

2 IBID(Kindle Locations 39-40).<\/p>\n

3 http:\/\/believethestory.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1985 Sting released a single titled, \u201cRussians.\u201d\u00a0 While reading through Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools by Elder, I couldn\u2019t stop singing the line from the song, \u201cI hope the Russians love their children too.\u201d\u00a0 By describing his dream, Sting was also challenging his hearers to practice critical thinking.\u00a0 As Elder states, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[680],"class_list":["post-5773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp-lgp6-elder","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5776,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5773\/revisions\/5776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}