Sep 09 2008
Four Beliefs that Impede Education: Part 2
Part 2 (of 5) Problematic Belief #1: In Thine Own Self, The Truth
It’s getting more difficult by the mouse click to find a web-page that doesn’t have a poll on it, an invitation to post a comment, or the opportunity to rate something. People absolutely love to voice their opinion. While active involvement is a good thing, the importance placed on merely voicing an opinion can be a bad thing. It seems a number of cultural forces have conspired to create the illusion that everyone should have an opinion and all opinions are equal. In too many venues, discourse has been transformed into the shallow exchange of sound-bites.
Part of the problem, no doubt, stems from our nation’s decades-long aim of teaching reading, writing, and self-esteem. We so value equality and fairness we hesitate to correct students or, heaven forbid, openly prize one student’s answer over another’s. In my classroom, at least during initial meetings, I am often struck by the impression that many students raise their hands not to engage in a dialogue with the instructor and/or their peers, but to indulge in proud self-disclosure.
That every person has an opinion does not mean all opinions are equally valid. Without acknowledging this through evaluation, and yes, correction, there is no guidance. Lacking real guidance, can we expect more than mediocrity from our students?
How many public figures applaud not the position of an opinion but the degree to which it is informed? For the first years of this millennium our country has had a president that in his words and deeds expressed to the masses it is not facts that matter, but the strength of your convictions. The preeminent role model to our nation has used a truth within as his guide.
As scientists well know, the truth doesn’t reside within. It would be convenient if it did, for it would spare the hassles and expense of collecting data and performing experiments. For all human beings, personal experience feels mightier than any bit of information found in a book or anywhere “out there.” But as a people we have yet to adequately realize that the most imposing authority we must be brazen enough to question is . . . our self. And the best way to question our self is to seek out new, potentially corrective information.
I would be guilty of ignoring the elephant in the room if I failed to mention religion and the crucial role it plays in perpetuating the inward-looking tendencies of students. What is faith but the belief in immaculately perceived knowledge? For religion to persist and/or prosper, it absolutely depends upon the notion of a truth within. (Have you ever heard a god speak from the flame of a Bunsen burner?) I wonder: What are the wider consequences of religious teachings that seal off propositions from public critique, testing, and verification?
In the least, students can seem confused as to why heartfelt convictions, and the confessing of these, are valued and encouraged in one area of their life, yet in another the heartfelt part can be greeted not with applause but skepticism — as it should. We send children to school not because the truth lies within. We send them to school because we want to expose their minds to a wealth of fresh understanding.
[...] at The Evolving Mind brings us a commentary on the fact that often the public is far too under-informed when being counted in polls. He cites [...]