Intrinsically Good

I think intrinsically good means good for the sake of being good, no ulterior motive. 

Things that are intrinsically good:

1.       Sleep

2.       Relationships

3.       Love

4.       Service

5.       Chocolate

6.       Popcorn

7.       Affirmation

8.       Quality Time

9.       Nature

10.   Sex

11.   Sanctity of marriage

12.   Parenthood

13.   Tea

14.   Water

15.   Patience

16.   Confidence

17.   Integrity

18.   Music

19.   Art

20.   Snow

There have been so many times in my life that I see love as being intrinsically good.  I see it in the love that was shown to me especially when I didn’t deserve it, or wasn’t the most willing recipient.  The example that sticks out in my mind is my freshman year when I was taking algebra.  Let me tell you I was not an easy person to love when I was doing algebra homework, but my mom would stay up until the wee hours of the morning while I worked on my horrific algebra homework.  She would make me hot cocoa, or hold my hand when I was on the verge of tears.  She loved me unconditionally. Love is definitely intrinsically good.  Of course Christ is the ultimate example of this unconditional love, without which I question whether any thing would be intrinsically good.

Can anything be intrinsically good since the fall has cast a negative shadow on everything?

Can we define certain things as intrinsically good, or does it depend on individual views

Banked!

One time I felt banked in my educational experience was in my American Government I took my senior year of High School.  This class was taught over IDL (inter distance learning) and the teacher had some interesting philosophies.  He was of the opinion that if you showed up to his class even if you slept through it you would retain enough information to pass the class.  In this class there was very little homework assigned.  The only means for a grade were tests and quizzes where all you needed to do was reproduce memorized facts.  We spent little to no time learning about concepts, or how to apply them to our lives.  Our text was also outdated, so the facts we were supposed to reproduce were no longer even accurate. 

I think I felt banked in this class because I wasn’t challenged to apply concepts to my life.  I was asked to reproduce facts, but I never made a connection between the facts and how they applied to my life.  Though I was able to recall information for tests and quizzes, I no longer retain that information.  However, if I had been challenged to apply concepts to my life and or forced to evaluate some of my previous views or thought processes, the class would have shaped me into a better developed person.  Therefore, I am of the opinion that education should be more than just a simple replication of facts.  It should be a process that challenges students’ ways of thinking, and forces them to think about how what they’re learning applies to their lives.