News:

Welcome to the new Sinister Design forums!

Main Menu

Weird thing I thought about the elemental affinities...

Started by Chocobo_Fan, March 03, 2012, 07:22:11 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Chocobo_Fan

In TSoG, the trainer asks you a question about your temperament before deciding which elemental affinity to focus on. This implies that they are based around personality. But what I found particularly strange is that, believe it or not, they kind of match up to the four core class courses taught in the US elementary system. Sounds crazy, I know, but bear with me for a moment. The four "core classes" are science, history, math, and English (really more like philosophy and rhetoric). If you took four students that each made one of those four courses their passion, I think their answers to the question would be as follows:

Scientists believe that wisdom lies in bringing new possibilities to light. By definition, that's their job: experimenting with the natural world to find new possibilities and advance our understanding of the universe. Historians are the opposite, believing that wisdom lies in scrutinizing the mistakes of history to avoid repeating them. Mathematicians believe in distance and rationality, breaking the observable world down into math and easily-analyzed formulas. On the flipside, rhetoricians believe in great passion. They believe in philosophy, the power of human nature, and the power of language -- emotions and passions.

Admittedly a test size of 1 is useless, but I personally fit the pattern -- my preferred course is science, and I picked light. I do see the others as legitimate possibilities, however, and for a while I was tempted to pick cold, because I also believe in rationality over emotions.

Well, anyway, this was just my crazy observation. Feel free to comment or mock as you wish. These are merely my crazy ramblings, you don't have to take them seriously if you don't want to. :p

Ertxiem

Interesting view. (Of course it's not that odd if you think that Craig is from the USA.)

Just a couple of brief comments:

In my country, the mother language class is more about grammar and interpretation than philosophy and rhetoric. Philosophy has it's own class for students around 15 years and there isn't any class that deals with rhetoric.

Apparently, in the US math isn't a science. The same seems to happen in many countries around the world (like mine).

Have you tried to capitalized your P in the smiley in the end of your post?
Ert, the Dead Cow.
With 2 small Mandelbrot sets as the spots.

Chocobo_Fan

Quote
In my country, the mother language class is more about grammar and interpretation than philosophy and rhetoric. Philosophy has it's own class for students around 15 years and there isn't any class that deals with rhetoric.
Yes, I did always find that weird about English class. It feels like a strange hodgepodge of multiple subjects. Some days we learn grammar, some days it's reading comprehension, some days it's philosophy...none of the other classes are so schizophrenic. o_O Still, though, I do think rhetoric is pretty important. If the English class hodgepodge problem is ever resolved and the classes are separated (and I hope they are), I do hope that at least one year of rhetoric will be required. It's a good skill to have.

And yeeeeeeah, the US' education system is also kind of a flaming train wreck in general...

Quote
Have you tried to capitalized your P in the smiley in the end of your post?
That was intentional actually. I despise smileys.