April 19th

In groups of five, we discussed a few points on College Thinking by Jack W. Meiland. There were few interesting topics brought into it.

First topic was whether this whole College Thinking method of studying can also be applied to Japanese colleges as well or not. In my opinion, I felt that this whole text was written from the premise that all students and colleges had a westernized characteristic. For example, Meiland pointed out how all students must keep on asking questions to teachers and constantly be engaged with them. However, I believe that this is not applicable in Japan considering the peoples’ personalities and the style of teaching in Japanese colleges. In large-scale universities (like Waseda and Keio), most classes are held in about 400 students to 1 single teacher in a passive way. Moreover, if you think over the shy personality of the overall Japanese, it is unrealistic to expect to get the same out of them using his method. In this sense, I consider ICU different compared to other Japanese universities. ICU puts more emphasis on critical thinking and classes are done in small number of people. Unlike other colleges, this atmosphere allows students to be engaged in studying and teachers, and constantly to question the society. These factors probably make ICU more “subversive” in a good way.

Second topic was about belief and religion. Why can Meiland talk about belief based on evidence when he is a Christian? Can he prove with facts that god really exists in this world? This topic really made our group stuck in conversation. After some considerations, we finally reached to a conclusion: belief and religion are two separate things that cannot be mixed together. The former consists of the process of rational thinking when the latter is more spiritual. Religion is more of an inner and instinctive thought compared to belief. I know that I’m lacking in persuasiveness, but we simply needed more time to discuss about this topic more deeply!

I think that this discussion was pretty elaborate and thoughtful. It was also nice to hear multiple opinions from other people which broaden my view on the topic. Moreover, I appreciate my group members for making this text more interesting than how it really is.