For Aaron Rodgers, it's all about him

Aaron Rodgers

Letter to the editor in today's SF Chronicle:

Rodgers or Kaepernick?

Which is worse: Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, “misleading” his teammates and the NFL about his COVID-19 vaccination status and endangering the health of those around him, or Colin Kaepernick, former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, peacefully taking a knee in protest during the playing of the national anthem and endangering no one?

Kaepernick’s football career pretty much has been destroyed, but it appears Rodgers could be back on the field Sunday.

Phil Points

San Francisco

Letter to the editor in today's NY Times Book Review:

Critical Thinking

To the Editor:

In his review of Steven Pinker’s book “Rationality” (Oct. 31), Anthony Gottlieb writes that “Pinker wants more lessons in schools about reasoning and critical thinking.”

But the problem isn’t, as Gottlieb suggests, making room in the curriculum. Every teacher’s responsibility should be to structure content using critical thinking, which requires valid criteria — standards — to support one’s positions (or judgments). 

Criteria vary by discipline. For example, the criteria used in mathematics are different from those used in history or art.

Think about the discussions we could have in classes if they were based on critical thinking. 

When responding to a question, students should be required to cite valid evidence relevant to that discipline as reasons for their answers, and not just say, “Because!” 

Imagine courses on civic education based on critical thinking, helping us make good judgments about whom to vote for. This is hard work that would mean preparing teachers differently, but unless we think of critical thinking and reasoning as central to understanding, we will make no progress toward their inclusion.

Nicholas M. Michelli

Water Mill, N.Y.

Rob's comment:

Michelli's letter is relevant to the Points letter, since apparently Rodgers never learned the fundamental principle of critical thinking: Where's the evidence for what you believe?

The rationalizations Rodgers provides for his behavior are all about him, not his teammates or the safety of the wider community during a pandemic.

The more Rodgers talks about his health and Covid-19, the dumber he sounds.