Wonderful! I particularly enjoy that you are sharing mental thoughts. I found myself (as I was reading) more interested in the dialogue than the actual issue of the morality or the legal implications of abortion.
You have my vote for more of the same.
PS—I would love to hear that my daughter (who is 21) had a classroom discussion like the one you created for us.
Thanks Daniel. I started working on part 2 yesterday. I plan on once per month unless inspiration hits me or the format becomes an overwhelming hit.
I was a post grad student in a US state school between 2015 and 2021. I noticed a significant change in attitudes in just that short time. Students seemed more open to debate when I began. The profs seemed to undergo a change as well. When I began bias was viewed as something to overcome. When I finished the talk was about good and bad bias.
Sounds like you had a front row seat to our most recent abdication of reason and rational thought.
I graduated from a U.S. law school in 1993. My favorite law professor made a point of cautioning against good outcomes founded on bad legal decisions. I wasn’t well read enough to understand his warning.
Ya. When I started writing my intent wasn't for her to come across as quite so dogmatic.
I thought about spending some time trying to make her more balanced but preferred getting the post out "on time" rather than spending too much time "fixing" her. If this ever turns into anything more than a post I'll consider going back and editing it a little.
Based on my experience I think you nailed the character and the behavior. There is of course no path to anyone with Claire's beliefs to win a rational debate.
The only problem with this case study, IMO, is that today a classroom would tend to have more than one Claire and thus the only thing missing would be the story of their mob tactics to scream and shout to shut down the conversation and force it to be a safe space for their radical Critical Theory ideology to live and flourish.
That is important only in that your story does well to cover the calm, rational, fact-based, critical thinking to refute the beliefs of Claire. The benefits of course are that the rest of the class gets to participate in a fact-pattern walk toward their own rational understanding of the subject matter. You cannot change Claire's mind, but she becomes a fine resource for the teacher to illustrate contrast. The people like Claire know this... and thus they tend to run in packs and use mob tactics. I think if Claire had been isolated in this classroom, she would have been instructed to record the session and then go back to mob-central to work on a plan to attach and destroy the career of the teacher.
Wonderful! I particularly enjoy that you are sharing mental thoughts. I found myself (as I was reading) more interested in the dialogue than the actual issue of the morality or the legal implications of abortion.
You have my vote for more of the same.
PS—I would love to hear that my daughter (who is 21) had a classroom discussion like the one you created for us.
Thanks Daniel. I started working on part 2 yesterday. I plan on once per month unless inspiration hits me or the format becomes an overwhelming hit.
I was a post grad student in a US state school between 2015 and 2021. I noticed a significant change in attitudes in just that short time. Students seemed more open to debate when I began. The profs seemed to undergo a change as well. When I began bias was viewed as something to overcome. When I finished the talk was about good and bad bias.
Sounds like you had a front row seat to our most recent abdication of reason and rational thought.
I graduated from a U.S. law school in 1993. My favorite law professor made a point of cautioning against good outcomes founded on bad legal decisions. I wasn’t well read enough to understand his warning.
Today our “chickens have come home to roost “.
Very good. Keep it up.
Thanks!
This is a great. Claire sucks.
Ya. When I started writing my intent wasn't for her to come across as quite so dogmatic.
I thought about spending some time trying to make her more balanced but preferred getting the post out "on time" rather than spending too much time "fixing" her. If this ever turns into anything more than a post I'll consider going back and editing it a little.
Thanks for the comment Frank!
Based on my experience I think you nailed the character and the behavior. There is of course no path to anyone with Claire's beliefs to win a rational debate.
The only problem with this case study, IMO, is that today a classroom would tend to have more than one Claire and thus the only thing missing would be the story of their mob tactics to scream and shout to shut down the conversation and force it to be a safe space for their radical Critical Theory ideology to live and flourish.
That is important only in that your story does well to cover the calm, rational, fact-based, critical thinking to refute the beliefs of Claire. The benefits of course are that the rest of the class gets to participate in a fact-pattern walk toward their own rational understanding of the subject matter. You cannot change Claire's mind, but she becomes a fine resource for the teacher to illustrate contrast. The people like Claire know this... and thus they tend to run in packs and use mob tactics. I think if Claire had been isolated in this classroom, she would have been instructed to record the session and then go back to mob-central to work on a plan to attach and destroy the career of the teacher.
You may be correct. Too much realism might derail the point of the piece though.