Intellectual Courage

I talked to a group of freshmen taking Orientation to College this morning about the need for critical thinking at the collegiate level.  I only spoke for 15 minutes about critical thinking due to time constraints, but I was priming the students for next week’s discussion about critical thinking.

The online textbook for the Orientation to College class, Campus ToolKit, contains information about critical thinking, at least enough to help students start thinking about thinking.  Once students are ready, Campus ToolKit offers assessments to further students’ awareness of strengths and weaknesses in critical thinking. 

One common weakness I notice as I talk with students about critical thinking is the inability to balance truth, kindness, and confrontation.  It appears that disagreeing makes many students uncomfortable when the topic is important to them.  For example, I think the Pittsburgh Steelers is the best football team in the National Football League.  Although a few folks might offer a heated rebuttal, few get too upset when they disagree.  In fact, I offered my opinion on the elite status of the Pittsburgh Steelers and several students laughed.  Obviously those laughing did not feel too threatened by my opposing viewpoint. 

Change the topic to abortion, capital punishment, religion, politics, or concepts of right and wrong, and the debate becomes heated, sometimes violent.  Unfortunately, many people have learned to remain quiet rather than offer a dissenting point of view, and no one learns from their silence.  Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way…

Let me encourage you to attack ideas, but not the speaker of those ideas.  Separating the thought from the person helps you maintain your composure while you deliver your counter views on the subject.  Additionally, give your “opponent” enough credit to disagree with your ideas without feeling like your character is under attack.  And finally, realize that disagreement is healthy and vital to your growth as an educated citizen.  If we all agree all the time, no one learns anything! 

Show intellectual maturity and courage by confronting ideas that are presented as truth, yet do not appear truthful to you.  Demonstrate intellectual humility by carefully considering those ideas different from your own and admitting when you are wrong.  You might learn something!