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I'd go with Commonplace Assertion there as the better right answer. That's a normal game with multiple choice though, and you're supposed to pick the most correct answer when there's multiple correct answers. Unless I wanted to make a point and start an argument, I would have selected that rather than the also correct opinion answer. I'd expect to lose that argument and get the answer wrong.
As I stated all the way back on page 7 of this thread, commonplace assertions are either facts or opinions. The (admittedly common) assertion 'there is a god' is an opinion. Given that they're both correct, neither is more correct than the other.
I've yet to click on the actual story, but like I said, false trichotomy. She'd have been better off asking people to classify the commonplace assertions as either fact or opinion. All common assertions are one or the other. If you want to get into a deeper epistemological debate regarding scientific/philosophical justification of 'fact', the 7th grade classroom is not the place to have that. 'there is a god', though, is in my asserted opinion-not-fact entirely appropriate for sex-having, drug-consuming 7th graders.
Including 'There is a God' on the list of statements did question the existence of God.
The teacher rejected both Fact and Opinion as 'correct' answers, leaving Commonplace Assertion as the answer she told the class is correct. Since you think stating 'There is a God' is an opinion and the teacher disagrees, one or the other of you might be the intellectual deficient one.
for falsely implicating an automatic distinction between 'opinion' and 'commonplace assertion', she is in the wrong.
Majority decision to push the proverbial button (on massive arsenals of nuclear weaponry) is the best possible human outcome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrcnkwcz
I've yet to click on the actual story, but like I said, false trichotomy. She'd have been better off asking people to classify the commonplace assertions as either fact or opinion. All common assertions are one or the other. If you want to get into a deeper epistemological debate regarding scientific/philosophical justification of 'fact', the 7th grade classroom is not the place to have that. 'there is a god', though, is in my asserted opinion-not-fact entirely appropriate for sex-having, drug-consuming 7th graders.
My bet is that most 7th graders have no idea what a common assertion is. YMMV.
Last edited by Oldhag1; 10-31-2015 at 08:21 AM..
Reason: See DM
My bet is that most 7th graders have no idea what a common assertion is. YMMV.
Shalom,
Mahrie.
I remember learning the fact v opinion dichotomy at a young age (younger than 7th grade). 4th or 5th grade maybe. So if 'common assertion' is/was presented for certain special cases that were said to not fit either 'fact' nor 'opinion', then I could understand this situation. I'd still argue against it, but I'd at least understand it.
How dare she? Totally out of place no matter what her beliefs may be or not be.
Just in the interest of intellectual consistency, would you honestly say that if the case in question were some warm motherly beloved 7th grade teacher saying, 'don't you worry, honey--you get an A on this test despite your utter ineptitude because God exists and wants me to grant you that A'?
I remember learning the fact v opinion dichotomy at a young age (younger than 7th grade). 4th or 5th grade maybe. So if 'common assertion' is/was presented for certain special cases that were said to not fit either 'fact' nor 'opinion', then I could understand this situation. I'd still argue against it, but I'd at least understand it.
No doubt, mrcnkwcz, but you and I weren't educated in the public school system as it is today. (In fact, I wasn't educated in the States, but rather in Britain and Europe where the bar was much higher.) DH and I chose to home school our kids because we weren't at all happy with the PSS anywhere. Our youngest 'child' is 27 now and the eldest is 38. Unfortunately, our grandchildren will be attending public schools because our kids all want to have both parents working. Not my choice, but what can y'do?
Last edited by Oldhag1; 10-31-2015 at 08:20 AM..
Reason: See DM
No doubt, mrcnkwcz, but you and I weren't educated in the public school system as it is today. (In fact, I wasn't educated in the States, but rather in Britain and Europe where the bar was much higher.) DH and I chose to home school our kids because we weren't at all happy with the PSS anywhere. Our youngest 'child' is 27 now and the eldest is 38. Unfortunately, our grandchildren will be attending public schools because our kids all want to have both parents working. Not my choice, but what can y'do?
.
Yeah, I've long been something of a Europhile. I have long despised the anti-intellectualism of the US. I myself am only 29 and a lifelong resident of Buffalo NY, which is (generally) a barren postindustrial bastion of decline and disgustingly overhyped resurgence; that said, I was educated at the best (if the rankings were to be believed) private schools the city had to offer (grades 4-12 anyway).
Last edited by Oldhag1; 10-31-2015 at 08:26 AM..
Reason: Edited quote
The exercise was to " differentiate between fact, common assertion, or opinion. "
The existence of God is at best a faith based opinion. Of course if you ask a group of the Christian faith it would be a common assertion that they will no doubt argue as fact. This argument would go around and around until everyone was red in the face and angry with no resolution which is as good a reason as any to not discuss theology in school. At least not at elementary levels.
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