12/15/12 Watchower Study Edition - Higher Eduction = Thinking in a "complicated" manner

by yourmomma 71 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • laverite
    laverite

    What idiocy. I maintain that the bat-crap crazy nutty things that come from the Watchtower will eventually be their undoing. They are so disconnected from reality, that more people will reconize this as the decades progress.

    There will be more than a few JWs who read that passage and know that there is indeed something rotten in Denmark.

  • King Solomon
    King Solomon

    00DAD said:

    Teaching to the Test WT Style - In JW-land this is called a WT Study: Read a paragraph and it's corresponding question. Find the answer to the question in the paragraph. You may paraphrase your answer or read it verbatim, but absolutely do not analyze it, question it or point out any contradictions, logical errors or inconsistenties with other and/or prevoius WT doctrines, teachings, rules, regulations, policies or practices.

    Yup, it's amazing how many people (including JWs) confuse "remembering" with "thinking", i.e. someone offers a challenge to what they say, and instead of actually thinking about the question, they search their data bank for an appropriate pre-canned memorized response.

    Unfortunately, the educational system in the U.S. largely doesn't encourage synthesis of thoughts or deeper understanding of the mechanisms at play, but only what I refer to as, "monkey-learning": memorizing facts and figures (which admittedly IS a part of any discipline, so as to not have to look up basic critical facts everytime you need to use them, eg A = 440 in music). That was my greatest disappointment with graduate education: to discover it's approach was simply a continuation of shallow learning used for undergrad, but was simply much more information persented at a much faster pace. Testing wasn't done to see if broad concepts were understood, but was simply more regurgitation of memorized facts.

    It's a tough issue, as testing methodology lends itself to focusing on the minor elements; it's harder to write broader questions without introducing other problems (like when tests are compromised, whether by students getting old copies of tests from prior years, etc).

    What idiocy. I maintain that the bat-crap crazy nutty things that come from the Watchtower will eventually be their undoing. They are so disconnected from reality, that more people will reconize this as the decades progress.

    You are more optimistic about your fellow man than I.

    JWs have survived over 100 years in spite of available evidence, and while we live in an information age, we've ALWAYS lived with information freely-available at libraries, etc, and the WT has only grown. It's not all about facts, but the emotional and social needs that religions provide. People willingly turn off their rationality to fit into social groups: that should be obvious to anyone familiar with WT.

    Unfortunately, most people use the internet to look at YT fart/ASL masturbation videos, looking to quickly strip any content out of the message so it doesn't interfere with it's entertainment value.

  • yourmomma
    yourmomma

    But this sentence in particular I find ridiculous: "I spent 18 years speaking and writing in the abstract language of higher education." WTF is the abstract language of higher education??? Who says things like that?

    LOL! I know, I was laughing my ass off about that one. HAHAHAHA!

  • 00DAD
    00DAD

    KingSolomon: Unfortunately, the educational system in the U.S. largely doesn't encourage synthesis of thoughts or deeper understanding of the mechanisms at play

    Absolutely!

    Fortunately there is a movement to change that. How successful it will be remains to be seen. Either way it draws attention to a need.

    We would all do well to acquire these cognitive skills ourselves whatever it takes for ourselves as well as those we love and/or responsible for.

    00DAD

  • MC RubberMallet
    MC RubberMallet

    FULL QUOTE available here!

    "A college graduate in the United States says: “I spent 18 years speaking and writing in the abstract language of higher education, well, education from the country I was born and reared in. I developed a habit of speaking and thinking in a way that was more complicated than necessary, in my mother tongue. I realized I needed to make big changes in my way of thinking and speaking, in order to fully embrace English.” Now an effective evangelizer, she writes: “The simplified Watchtower has proved to be a great help in grasping the language of this country I moved to a month before the issue came out. I never had any exposure to English before this, so I like the simple edition. Therefore, its language gives me an excellent example of how to put things simply.”

  • VM44
    VM44

    Thanks MC for finding the full quote.

    There was no indication in the version appearing in the 12/15/12 Watchtower that significant portions were left out.

    The Watchtower editors actually CHANGED the meaning of what she said!

  • VM44
    VM44

    btw, MC, where did you find the full quote?

  • King Solomon
    King Solomon

    I suspect MC was funnin', and forgot to put a winkie at the end...

  • VM44
    VM44

    From "The Writer's Handbook"

    http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_quoting.html

    Quoting Only a Portion of the Whole

    Use ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate an omission within a quotation--but not at the beginning or end unless it's not obvious that you're quoting only a portion of the whole.

  • King Solomon
    King Solomon

    That looks like great advice, if I actually knew what an ellipsis is/are...

    PS what does writers handbook have to say about words like 'funnin'?

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit