I know what I know and that’s all that I know
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
So true and so not-common. Good debaters know this very well – the whole point is to construct cogent and logical arguments in favor of a position, whether the debater believes it or not.
I suppose that most radio and television pundits skipped debating class because all I seem to hear are one-note diatribes that can be summarized as "me always right – you always wrong." If they at least pounded their chests and grunted while pontificating it'd at least be amusing (and in character with the intellectual content) but sadly, this rarely occurs.
I'm with Aristotle on this one. I know what I believe to be true but that doesn't mean I can't rationally examine and consider other points of view. That's at the core of what good education is all about – imbuing us with the ability to look at some information, think about it, turn it around and examine it from all angles, and then decide whether to chuck it out the window and into the garden of goofy ideas or make it part of our own knowledge repository.
What's the polar opposite? Fanaticism. The "This is the way it is and don't you dare consider questioning it or I kill you!" approach. Galileo ran into a spot of bother some time back when he tried to stretch his mind and consider whether perhaps the world wasn't quite what everyone thought it was. It took the church a few hundred years to finally admit he may have had a point.
You know, I think one reason a lot of people hated school was because it was more of the latter than the former. Being lectured at isn't fun; being part of the intellectual dynamic is. Teachers need to show the different sides of the material and students need to use the "w" word without fear. (That's "why" for those who might be wondering.)
Unless you're really okay with the idea that your opponents are literally insane (and therefore you needn't worry about their views having any basis in reality) it pays to wander over to their side of the intellectual fence every once and a while. It's just marginally possible that amongst the cow patties of wrong-headedness you stumble into an opinion that's not completely half baked.
Use your own brain and make up your own mind. Sticks and stones may break your bones but words (and ideas) shouldn't scare you. Unless they're "Those charging elephants are headed right at us, aren't they?"
- And that's today's word from the bird
hear hear, i agree so much i linked to my facebook. people need to stop their tunnelveiws and look around a bit more…
two thoughts about this though from the other side (in lieu of the topic):
schools have specific foci and trains of thought because its very hard to teach rote facts for every side on a subject, teaching in this fashion would slow down education
too much looking at life from all sides leads to fence-sitting, 'wishy-washiness' and doubt; it can be helped, but takes extra effort to balance decisiveness and tolerance
Great! Glad it struck a chord. Feel free to link to your heart's content
I think you have a great point in this artical that resonates with many people of intelligence. I would like to mention however, that your phrase about teachers seemed a little off. You wrote "Teachers need to show the different sides of the material and students need to use the "w" word without fear." — There's some implication here that teachers don't do the above and that they scare students into not asking questions. That is what bad teachers often do, yes, but there are many excellent teachers and even more good ones that work very hard to engage their students, encourage them to ask questions, and help them to examine topics from a forgien point of view. I dare say that most us intellectual-type folk had one or two teachers along the way who encouraged us to do so, and thus helped us forage our dedication to higher thought.
Sure. Didn't mean to imply none do; in fact many do. What I was trying to say was that it should be a necessary component for all teachers. And I'm sure you'll agree that MANY teachers never seem to have been clued in to this.
Agreed. What's most discouraging to me is to see that in those teachers who are responsible for educating other teachers.
Damn, forge, not forage. I really am an aweful speller.