IS THERE FUN AFTER FUNDAMENTALISM? THAT DEPENDS

Evaluation, the sixth and highest level of thinking, requires making judgments when there is no one answer that is right for everyone. While some might take this statement to suggest I’m advocating moral relativism, I want to be clear that I’m talking about wisdom, not moral absolutes. Some things are definitely right and others definitely wrong. Contrary to what we may have been taught in church, a good deal of life is messy, confusing, and not scripted by the Bible. This is unfortunate because some home schoolers are uncomfortable with making judgments and lack practice in doing so. They like everything spelled out, and really wish God would help them, actually just tell them, what school books to use so they wouldn’t have to think about the decision and weigh the various options. This kind of thinking results in academic legalism, a close cousin to the religious variety. Warped fundamentalism, not to be confused with The Fundamentals, is not much fun. But, if we are going to equip our children to appreciate and enjoy life in all its ambiguity, we need to ask the kinds of questions that help them evaluate, exercise judgment, and become good decision makers. Let’s look at this a little more closely.

Thinking on this level requires the ability to judge the value, consistency, or adequacy of something such as a statement made, a novel or poem written, a work of art or music, a research paper, etc. Evaluation is based on definite criteria which the student sometimes determines or is given. This is the highest level of thinking because it contains elements of all the other categories of questions I’ve discussed previously along value judgments included.

These value judgments are often intellectual, social, moral, ethical, and aesthetic in nature.

Questions at this level may start with the following words:

appraise
compare
contrast
criticize
discriminate
judge
justify
support

Let’s say you are leading your high school student through a course in government. Consider the following three assignments that require thinking on this level:

Below are eight opinions related to the Tea Party movement in America. Write two responses to two opinions. Chose one opinion in which you affirm, support and even strengthen it. Choose a different opinion in which you provide an opposing viewpoint.

Martin Luther, the great Christian reformer, is quoted as saying “I would rather be ruled by a wise Turk than a Christian donkey.” Answer the following questions using no more than one and one-half pages total: What do you think he meant by this? Applying this to politics today, in what ways would you agree or disagree with his position? Who in political office today would you consider to be a wise Turk, and who would you consider to be a Christian donkey. Your answer needs to be word processed.

The slogans below were found on t-shirts. Choose three t-shirt slogans. Using a separate piece of paper for each slogan, respond to the following questions:

1. What problem does the slogan point to?

2. What point of view is being expressed by the slogan?

3. Do you agree or disagree with the point of view?

4. Present a current event (news item), government official, organization, etc. that has been in the news the last twelve months that relates to the slogan.

The Slogans…

Thou shalt think for thyself
Our survival requires bold, decisive, visionary leadership. So basically we’re all ---
So what have we learned from all this?
Love your country, fear your government
As long as there is power to be sold, there will be money to buy it
Act like nothing’s wrong
Remember, the whole system depends on you not asking too many questions
You’re inadequate, buy more stuff

The above assignments were actually given to a group of home schoolers . The time spent thinking and responding to them was much more productive than the typical memorize and recite method required to prepare for the tests in many history and government textbooks.

Hopefully the above examples will make asking questions at this level easier to think of. In my next ezine, I’ll further explain this sixth and final level of questions and then pose a question to you to help test your understanding.

Thanks for reading!

CurtBumcrot,MRE
Director, Basic Skills Assessment & Educational Services

PS: Last week, many of you took advantage of some free downloads of sample lessons from our soon-to- be-released product, Grammar Bytes. We hope your kids had fun with them. If you’d like to grab another one, simply click here to go to our Product Spotlight where we’ve added another download. Learning grammar doesn’t have to be boring!

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