Course material

1. Unit 5 Beginning Note and First Assignment We begin this...
Unit 5 Beginning Note and First Assignment
We begin this unit with another online reading (similar to the Mindsets reading in Unit 2).
This reading introduces the concepts of Rider, Elephant, and Path. These three terms give us
a big picture way of looking at some of the conflicts our minds experience.
There is one slight problem with this reading: usually a couple pages of the reading are
blank and unavailable. You should still be able to determine the meaning of the three ideas
central to this assignment. If you have any difficulty, email me.
Here is the first writing assignment for this unit:
Through the following link, you will find a copy of the book Switch: How to change things
when change is hard.
http://books.google.com/books?id=QgzBqhbdlvUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_s
ummary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
If the first link does not work, this copy of Switch (chapter 1) is also available for reading.
Read Chapter 1 in Switch: How to change things when change is hard (pages 1-24 in the
Google book or 1-10 in the copy). Like I mentioned, it is likely a few pages will be missing.
Just read what is there, and email me if you have any questions.
In 400 or more words for assignment 1, please address the following tasks:
1. Explain the concepts of Rider, Elephant, and Path.
2. Write a reaction to points made in the chapter. I am interested in whether you can see the
connection between the material in the book and issues in your life. I am interested in
whether you can understand the information and then apply it in some way. You can show
this understanding in a number of ways:
• You can write a reaction to points made in the chapter.
• You can explain why some points in the chapter have particular importance or significance
to you.
• You can draw a connection between the material in the chapter and things you have
thought in the past (or think now).
• You can discuss questions that the material raises in your mind.
3. The assignment must be a minimum of 400 words.
2. Making Choices
An important part of this class is reflected in this question: Are you able to apply what you
learn in this class to the issues and problems of your "real" life. (Remember: you only need
to answer questions that are asked as part of specific assignments.)

2. I often get resistance to the idea that we have more opportunity to make choices in life than
we recognize or take advantage of. I will bring this issue up a number of times this semester
for you to consider.
Because our lives are so difficult, we often find ourselves focusing on aspects of life we don't
feel we control. We don't choose our parents. We don't choose the time in history we are
born into. We can't choose what educational requirements are expected for entry into a
certain career field. There is much about our physical and mental characteristics that seems
only partially influenceable.
Yet we all have the experience of making decisions, of choosing to do one thing rather than
another. Sometimes what we choose does not turn out well for us.
But either way, the idea of choice is a central issue for us in our lives.
A key purpose of this class is to raise consciousness about choices. For instance, we study
the 7 Intellectual Traits (Intellectual Humility, Intellectual Empathy, etc.) in order to add
these to the list of our possible choices. You cannot as easily choose between Intellectual
Humility and Intellectual Arrogance if you do not understand the concepts or if you cannot
imagine the implications of thinking in these two different ways.
Partially it is true that you make decisions in your world, but I will argue throughout this
course that your decisions also create your world. Marriage, for instance, doesn't just
happen. It is created by the decisions of two people. Look around and you will see all kinds
of marriages. These marriages, some that may look okay to you and some that may not,
were created by the people involved.
Sometimes we may form poor relationships out of ignorance, not knowing how to do better.
But isn't that sad? Wouldn't it be sad to end your life knowing you could have been much
happier, you just didn't know how?
Nothing is easy in life, though sometimes I wonder if maybe misery and unhappiness are
easier than positive attitudes and happiness. Maybe you are not sure at this point if
happiness is worth the work.
But of this I am sure: each of us does not have a predetermined level of success or happiness
in life that we will achieve regardless of what we do. Rather, there is a lot of happiness and
success available to us, but like many of the things we want, they have to be earned.
The first step is education. Understanding. Seeing more choices. Recognizing implications.
Knowing as much about life and human beings as possible.
In this class, I expect you to show you understand the concepts and can apply them. But the
most important activity for you is to take each concept, hold it up to yourself and your life,
and decide whether it fits with who you want to be.
Here is the second writing assignment in this unit. Now that I made the above points, I am
curious what you think. Which is easier: misery and unhappiness, or positive attitudes and
happiness? Why (in other words, support what you decide is easier)? While this is an
opinion question (meaning there is no right or wrong answer), your answer needs to show
depth of thought. There seem to be a lot of miserable people around. Do they have to be?
Are you sometimes miserable and sometimes happy? I am interested in the reasoning you
use to explain your perspective. You may need to define what you mean by easier or harder.
3. Intellectual Perseverance

3. Intellectual Perseverance is defined as sticking with difficult or frustrating problems.
Okay, here you are in the third or fourth week of the semester. Most of you have, by this
time, run into some things that haven't gone well in some of your classes. Maybe some
material is more confusing than you thought it would be. Maybe one of your classes is
requiring more work than you expected. Maybe a teacher has been less skilled or helpful
than you had expected. Maybe some combination of kids, work, car trouble, and relationship
stress has made the semester harder than you had wanted. Maybe you have been sick,
maybe your parents are struggling, maybe you have been drinking more than is healthy for
you, or maybe a friend is struggling and you don't know how to help. Every one of us faces
different problems, but we all face problems. No one gets through life easily.
So how have you handled the difficult or frustrating situations so far this semester?
Perseverance has a lot to do with success in every area of life. Sometimes perseverance can
be a physical struggle, but usually it is a mental struggle: perseverance has to do with the
decisions you make when problems come up. What do you decide to do? Do you ask for
help? Talk to your teacher? Go to the Math Center or the Writing Lab? Cut down on the
parties? Ask your partner for help? Adjust your working hours? Sit down and make a list of
what has to get done?
In my classes, seldom does a lack of ability or intelligence cause a student to fail.
Occasionally failure is caused by sheer lack of motivation and nothing else. But more often it
seems to be caused by difficulties coming up in a student's life, which may cause absences
from class, which leads to missed homework assignments, which then leads to lower test
scores, which then leads many students to give up.
You may have heard this referred to as a "snow-ball effect". But snow-balls do not make
decisions as humans do. Our lives may feel like snow-balls rolling down a hill, but the reality
is that we are making decision after decision that influence the directions our lives take. We
often have chances, whether we recognize them or not, to change certain aspects of our
lives.
Many students face difficult situations while in college. I would guess that all students do.
But not all students persevere, stick with it, figure it out, and struggle through. This is true
of most life problems.
People who exhibit Intellectual Perseverance in life, whether as students, or as parents, or
as patients, or as soldiers, choose to be that way.
Here is the third writing assignment in this unit. Evaluate yourself in terms of Intellectual
Perseverance so far this semester. If there are personal issues that you do not want do
discuss in detail, be vague about them. But focus on school and what affects how you are
doing in school. I am asking you to be specific. How are you showing or not showing
Intellectual Perseverance this semester?
4. Confidence in Reason
Confidence in Reason is believing reasoning is the best way to approach problems or
conflicts.
Have you noticed how people behave when they want to get their way? Some guilt-trip,
some whine, some use threats or force. These approaches do not show Confidence in
Reason.

4. Many politicians use manipulative advertisements to try to influence voters. This does not
show Confidence in Reason.
Some bosses rely largely on the power of their position to influence their employees. That
does not show Confidence in Reason.
Sometimes stronger nations use force to get their way before exhausting all of the more
reasonable options.
One key goal of this class is to build our Confidence in Reason. Whether the situation is a
marriage, or a job, or taxes, or natural resources, or an election, reason will often produce
better results than manipulation, threats, and power.
One objection people have to reasoning things through is that they may not get their way.
Many people don't like this. They are only willing to use Reason if it means they get what
they want in the end. But reasoning is cooperative and tends to produce compromise or
win-win situations. This is not satisfactory for some people.
If you watch our politicians in Washington D.C., you will notice they are often more
interested in winning a political victory than being reasonable. Imagine how different our
politics would be if they were genuinely trying to reason together and lead our nation.
I am sure that you feel you are "reasonable" most of the time, just like I feel I am. But are
you always reasonable? Can you tell the difference between when you are being reasonable
and when you are not?
This is important. If we can't tell the difference, how can we choose one behavior or the
other? This goes back to the first notes in this unit. We have to be able to understand our
choices to be able to choose.
Here is the fourth writing assignment in this unit. These are fairly difficult questions.
Answer them as best you can.
(1) How can you tell, in any given situation, if you are being reasonable with the other
person or people involved? Use specific examples or situations if you can.
(2) Do you have a right to be unreasonable if you want to? Sometimes yes and sometimes
no? Explain.
(3) Do our political leaders have a right to be unreasonable if it serves their personal best
interest? Explain/discuss.
5, Intellectual intergrity
Intellectual Integrity is defined as holding yourself to the same standards that you expect
from others.
Intellectual Integrity is one of the hardest traits to exhibit. Many people are dishonest
themselves, but hate it when others are.
The following assignment question may seem personal, but you do not even have to answer
it truthfully. The reason this question is in a class assignment because in the course of 16
weeks, we are trying to touch on difficult questions humans have to face (and perhaps the
question isn't even one you have ever really thought about). For us, it is a chance to look at
Intellectual Integrity.
Here is the fifth writing assignment for this unit.
Consider the following questions as two viewpoints on the same situation. Write out your
answers to all 4 questions:

5. 1. You make a cash purchase at a grocery store and the cashier returns change to you that
includes an extra $20 bill stuck to another dollar bill. Do you return the $20, or do you
pocket the $20? Explain.
2. You are a cashier at a grocery store, and you must balance your register after your shift.
You give back excess money while making change. Would you expect a customer to return
any excess money given out in error so that you are able to balance your cash register, or
would you be okay with them keeping it?
3. Discuss how this situation might relate to Intellectual Integrity.
4. Briefly offer another example of Intellectual Integrity so that I am aware that you
understand the meaning.
6, Another Question of intellectual integrity
It is natural that when we buy a used car we want the seller to be totally honest with us. Yet
when we sell a used car, we have to decide whether we should be totally honest ourselves.
We can likely sell a car for more money if we lie, or more often just omit certain
information. Is omitting information lying? Maybe you don't consider omitting information
to be lying, but that is beside the point. The question is intellectual Integrity, whether you
will hold yourself to the standards you expect from others.
Here is the sixth writing assignment for this unit. What level of honesty do you think we
should expect from anyone selling a used car? Do you expect this standard from yourself?
Explain, again keeping Intellectual Integrity in mind.
This is the end of unit 5
You might consider reviewing your 6 assignments for Unit 5 to be sure they contain the
level of detail needed for this class. This is the end of Unit 5.