Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero [42]
Cecil: That's a real measure of faith, the willingness to discard earthly treasures out of spiritual conviction.
Ellie: It's more like an act of lunacy. It's a terrible waste of wealth. If he'd wanted to express his religious conviction, he could have done something to help his fellow human beings.
Cecil: By doing what?
Ellie: He could have sold the objects, taken the million dollars, and given it to the needy of the world. Or he could have donated it to a religious organization or a hospital. Instead, he threw it away and helped no one.
Cecil: You don't understand. Selling the objects would have corrupted others. He's a religious man. The Bible told him what to do, and he had no choice but to obey.
Back ground Note: A former Florida policewoman filed a federal discrimination suit, alleging that he was fired because of a sex-change operation. The officer, now a man, charged that the firing violated his constitutional rights and asked both monetary damages and reinstatement on the police force.13
Christine: If the cause for the firing was as the officer describes it, then it was improper.
Renee: I disagree. A police officer is a public official and should not engage in behavior that disgraces that office.
Christine: what's disgraceful about having a sex-change operations?
Renee: It's sick, strange, abnormal, and it makes the police department the laughingstock of the community.
Christine: Wrong. The only concern of the police department and of the general public should be the officer's performance of his or her duty. Whether he or she decides to have a sex-change operation is no more their business than if the officer decides to take up stamp collecting as a hobby.
Group discussion exercise: Discuss one of the dialogues in application 5 with two or three of your classmates, being alert for any stereotyping that may occur during the discussion. Trey to reach consensus on the issues. Be prepared to present the group's view (or the individual views) to the class.
1 Quoted in William E. Vinacke, The Psychology of Thinking (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952), p.338.
2 Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1954, pp.189-90.
3 Social Change and Prejudice (London: Collier-Macmillan, 1950), p.127.
4 "A Policeman Complains…," New York Times Magazine, June 13, 1971, pp.28ff.
5 "The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy," pp.201-02.
6 The Tolerant personality (Detroit: Wayne University Press, 1964), p.19.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid., p.129
9 The Nature of Prejudice (Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1954), p.173.
10 Michael J. McManus, "Jerry Falwell Moves into Social Action," The (Oneonta) Star, January 26, 1982, p.4.
11 "Unwed Father Barred from Delivery Room," The (Oneonta) Star, May 14, 1982, p.2.
12 "Donahue," WIXT-TV, Syracuse, N.Y., November 18, 1982.
13 "Ex-Policeman Says Sex Shift Cost His Job," (Schenectady) Gazette, August 28, 1982.
P2-C10-6
CHAPTER ELEVEN
OVERSIMPLIFICATION
Simplification is a useful, even necessary activity. The world is complex. There are thousands of subjects and millions of facts and interpretations of facts. No one can hope to be an expert in more than one or two subjects. Furthermore, as we have seen in previous chapters, even an expert's knowledge and understanding are limited.
Yet the job of communicating about these subjects is an everyday necessity. Circumstance forces those who know more about a subject to speak with those who know less. In industry, for example, supervisors must train new workers. In government, experienced employees must explain procedures to novices. In each of these cases the effectiveness of the training depends on the clarity of the instruction. Complicated matters can be made clear only by simplifying them.
Nowhere is the value of simplification clearer than in formal education. First-grade teachers cannot expect their