For your first speech, you are to reflect back on a time in which you were younger, before you had learned critical thinking skills, and while you still depended on others to instill values in you. This "An Absolute Value Speech" is an ideal starting point for the course because it serves as a springboard for the research you will conduct later in the class and the critical thinking skills you will need to implement when you evaluate and perhaps reevaluate this belief. This speech will also get you to think more about controversial beliefs people are raised or encouraged to hold before they acquire the critical thinking skills necessary to make informed decisions. For this speech choose one value judgment you were asked or encouraged to accept as a child or young teenager and discuss how this request that you follow this belief manifested itself in your life at that time. It should be something you were first asked or encouraged (explicitly or implicitly) to accept before you had firsthand experience with the subject. At this point, I don't want you to discuss how you currently feel about the topic or how others feel about it (that will come later). Just reflect upon where the judgment originated, who and/or what reinforced it, and how this value was impressed upon you.The choice of topic is up to you, but the following suggestions might help you choose a relevant and challenging topic: It could be something your parents, church, particular teachers, specific TV shows, etc. directly or indirectly encouraged you to believe. (See handout on topic selection for more concrete ideas.) Again, keep your focus on the time period in which you were asked to accept the proposition. Don't discuss at this point how you currently feel about the topic.
Sample Solution