(no subject)

[littlelotte]

I am so tired and I'm ready to lynch my Critical Thinking teacher. Thank gods today was the last day of class.

Perfect thing to do before I'm about to fill out an evaluation on you: make me listen to clips from talks entitled "The Genius of Jesus" and "Atheism, Theism and the Meaning of [something...winamp cut the title off]."

An especially wonderful gem of a quote, from the former:
"Any system of education that ignores the moral and religious nature of the student is fundamentally defective."

First off: there's a reason I'm at a liberal arts college and not a religious college. I wanted my classes religion-free, thankyouverymuch, unless they were religion-specific (i.e. Japanese Religion and Religions of the World and Classical Greek and Roman Mythology) and I chose to take them, or the given topic relied heavily on religious practices (i.e. ancient Greek theatre). I had a former Buddhist monk who lived in Japan for ten years teach my Japanese Religion class and I actually enjoyed that because he wasn't shoving that belief structure down my throat--he was simply teaching me about the different religions and religious structures and beliefs prevalent in Japan. This teacher, on the other hand, is teaching a class that is supposed to encourage critical thinking and debate and explain the basics of constructing, deconstructing and evaluating arguments and instead is essentially telling us why we should believe what he believes and that it's THE RIGHT ANSWER.

I hate teachers who use their classes as a platform for disseminating their own personal beliefs, and I have had my teacher's morals and ethics and (oh jeez...Election moment "What is the difference between morals and ethics?" *giggle*) religious leaning shoved down my throat since the day I walked into that class. I had no choice in taking this class. This is the last requirement I had to fill, and this was the only class offered in the summer semesters that filled it. I would have walked out had I been able to take a different class.

Fact: I'm not Christian. A large chunk of that school is not Christian. This is not a Christian school. I should not take a class and have to be worried that I'm going to have Christianity shoved down my throat. Besides, what if a student is an Atheist? How the hell can any system of education truly address "the moral and religious nature" of that student? The major religions have their own schools for people who want to attend them. My religion does not have its own university. The only choice I have is a university where I'm not going to feel threatened by believing what I believe, yet this idea of systems of education addressing religious nature implies that those types of schools should not exist.

I am so completely beyond angry and upset and pissed right now that I can't do much of anything but fume. Fuck. You. Critical. Thinking. Teacher. Fuck. You.

Comments

[samuraibutterfl.livejournal.com]

I would ask around and see if there was anybody else in your class who felt the same way that you did. Try to get a letter put together to send to both the teacher and the dean.

[littlelotte.livejournal.com]

There are actually a number of students in the class who felt the same way I did, but it's really too late to do anything about it now :-\

[yellow-finch.livejournal.com]

So, uh, what did you write on the evaluation? :)

[littlelotte.livejournal.com]

Not pretty things.

[yellow-finch.livejournal.com]

Excellent.

[countpumpcula.livejournal.com]

...I'm at a religious liberal arts college...
HAHAHAHAHAHA.

[littlelotte.livejournal.com]

And see...I would be too, if I wanted religion with my schooling, but I don't, so I'm at a public liberal arts school...lol And he's not even a real teacher yet. I think he's in the doctorate philosophy program.

[countpumpcula.livejournal.com]

Ew. Well I didn't quite want religion with my education...but the two required religion classes aren't so bad. My first one was an intro class to major world religions. Almost interesting.

[clearmind.livejournal.com]

There are benifits in having classes at Emerson. :-D

[littlelotte.livejournal.com]

:-P

[peithecelt.livejournal.com]

Go to the dean and RANT, loudly, bring in the readings, bring in the clips, lay out the evidence and say "What the fuck?"..

(or maybe that's just me.. ;)

[eriksangel15.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's just that I've been interested in comparing religions and religious beliefs or not, but it *CAN* be interesting, depending on how the prof presents the materials, which goes along w/ the former monk you mentioned. But yeah, if I were you, I'd try to file/make some kind of formal complaint to someone. Sometimes, I wonder if those who try the "bashing religion over your head" approach ever heard of the phrase "It's easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar".

EA