This reminds me of my "Critical Thinking" class in college. The teacher split us into groups and had us prepare for debates. We were allowed to choose our own topic.
People in my group wanted to debate topics such as "Adam Sandler is funny". I was hoping for something with a little more... meat. Having done debate in high school and being able to tell that most people in class didn't really know what a debate looked like, I emailed the teacher and volunteered to do a short debate (with another student who was willing) that would allow the class to see a structured debate and allow me to debate something not stupid.
Somehow my teacher took it to mean I didn't like my group or the class - I tried apologizing but it just spiraled bizarrely out of control. In one of the last emails he let me know that 1) He had been teaching for a long time and knew what he was doing 2) the leaders of the school trusted him to teach this class so he must be doing something right and 3) no one else was "complaining" and were giving him high marks on instructor reviews.
I think I responded with something along the lines of 1)Appeal to Experience 2)Appeal to Authority 3)Appeal to Popularity.
Keep in mind this is the class that actually TEACHES logical fallacies.
People in my group wanted to debate topics such as "Adam Sandler is funny". I was hoping for something with a little more... meat. Having done debate in high school and being able to tell that most people in class didn't really know what a debate looked like, I emailed the teacher and volunteered to do a short debate (with another student who was willing) that would allow the class to see a structured debate and allow me to debate something not stupid.
Somehow my teacher took it to mean I didn't like my group or the class - I tried apologizing but it just spiraled bizarrely out of control. In one of the last emails he let me know that 1) He had been teaching for a long time and knew what he was doing 2) the leaders of the school trusted him to teach this class so he must be doing something right and 3) no one else was "complaining" and were giving him high marks on instructor reviews.
I think I responded with something along the lines of 1)Appeal to Experience 2)Appeal to Authority 3)Appeal to Popularity.
Keep in mind this is the class that actually TEACHES logical fallacies.