Grade Thinking

Thinking as a Hobby
In “Thinking as a Hobby”, William believes that most people are grade three thinkers. Grade three thinkers tend to feel, and not to think. Golding gives an example of his teacher Mr. Houghton, who would always talk about “good life, sexless, and free of duty”, while “his neck would turn of itself” if a girl passed by the window (164). I think he is right; most people will speak or do without speaking. For example, William says in his essay, “A crowd of grade-three thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hands at the fire of their own prejudices, will not thank you for pointing out the contradictions in their beliefs” (165). I have known of people speaking their minds, and not caring if it hurts the other person. To be a grade-three thinker is to live the unexpected life. One particular individual that he describes in this passage is a school teacher by the name of Miss Parson. He feels that Miss Parson pretended to care, and to be concerned for her class. Actually, the only concern she had was finding her a husband. To me, grade three thinkers are considered immature and selfish. When you try to reason with them, they either respond one of two ways, they get mad and turn it into a shouting match or they get defensive. I thought William did a good job on describing grade three thinkers, because it describes most people. People only care about themselves, and not how it may affect others. Also, grade three thinkers, often think everything is true and will fight with anyone if they try to prove them wrong. Overall, William Golding did an excellent job on grade three thinking.