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READING AS A DOUBTER

 

But reading as a believer is only half of being a powerful reader. You must also read as a doubter by raising objections, asking questions, expressing skepticism, and withholding assent. In the margins you add a new layer of notations de­manding more proof, doubting evidence, challenging the author's assumptions and values, and so forth.

We ask you to return now to the Murray article and read it skeptically yourself. Raise questions, offer objections, express all your doubts. Then, working as a whole class or in small groups, make a list of problems you find with Mur­ray's argument.

We hope that you have now done your own doubting of Murray's article, that follows is a selective list of doubts and queries raised by students in our classes:

■ Murray seems to have no compassion for the individuals who would suf­fer from his proposal. He treats people like abstract numbers.

■ Murray glosses over the question of cause, calling it "murky" (para­graph 9). He believes that the "revolution in social policy" is the primary cause, and thus he thinks that changing the social policy will reverse the trend. But what if the other factors are more important—sexual revolution, shift in cultural norms, or changes in the economy?

■ Will changing welfare rules really change attitudes of sexually active teenagers or young adults? Murray seems to assume that desire for welfare money is a primary motivation for getting pregnant. Perhaps the desire of poor women to have a baby is the result of alienation and hopelessness in living a life of poverty.

■ Is illegitimacy really the root cause that drives all the other social problems such as crime, drug use, unemployment, and so forth? Perhaps poverty is the root cause. What good will il do to force the boyfriend to marry the girl (shotgun wedding) if the boyfriend has no job?

■ What would happen to single mothers and their children if welfare pay­ments suddenly stopped and they were unable to get help from family and friends? How many babies would starve or be abandoned? Would these "lavish" orphanages really work?

■ Our group felt the article was racist. Murray seemed to think we could tol­erate illegitimacy among blacks but not among whiles.Íó seems to have completely given up on Black America.

 

■ Murray seems to have a sentimental attachment to the past. He assumes that all earlier cultures were modeled on 1950s two-parent nuclear families. What worked in the 50s he believes has worked "for millennia." Were the 50s really all that great? "'.'

■ Murray is a sexist when it comes to sex. He assumes that boys like sex and that girls want babies. He thus puts no emphasis on birth control or safe sex. But girls like sex too and need to be taught how to have sex without getting pregnant. Perhaps we need better sex education and family plan­ning programs rather than changes in welfare rules.

These are only some of the objections that might be raised against Murray'sarticle. Perhaps you and your classmates have other objections that are equally important. Our point is that you should practice "doubting" an argument as well as"believing" it. Both skills are essential. Whereas believing helps you expand yourview of the world or modify your arguments and beliefs in response to others,doubting helps protect you from becoming overpowered by others' argumentsand teaches you to stand back, consider, and weigh carefully.



 

 

Read the two pieces carefully. Then, working as a whole class or in small groups, answer the following questions.

I What does each piece reveal about the underlying beliefs, assumptions, and values of its writer?

I In what way do these writers' underlying beliefs, assumptions, and values cause them to agree or disagree with Charles Murray and with each other?

 


Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1666


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