CHARACTERISTICS OF FREE MIND

CHERRY LYN B. NADAL

A French writer and educator once made the observation that the schools should cultivate in every student the attitude that whatever the teacher teaches is wrong. This is a wise observation. It is only by cultivating and maintaining a skeptical attitude that one can hope to develop individuality of the high order. It certainly is a potent antidote for rampant dogmatism and fanaticism.

If teaching is to serve as an indispensable counterpart of liberal educationif it is to liberate the mind-it must provide conditions necessary for stimulating thoughts, for collecting thoughts, for organizing thoughts, and for focusing thoughts on significant problems. We should teach critically the old and the accepted for better, and more intelligent control should teach critically the new and doubtful to decide whether or not to accept. Learning under such conditions may be regarded as the process of acquiring intelligent experience which is the goal of liberal education.

Schools and colleges in a democracy have another responsibility: they must contribute to the reconstruction of society by developing in every student the ability and the skill to think critically about the institutions whose philosophies and activities impinge upon the life of every member of society. They must make him realize that these institutions , no matter how securely established, are but man-made- having been brought into existence through the concerted efforts of men, to meet their common needs; and that, like everything human, they have their peculiar weakness and defects. On account of its public hearing and because of its human origin, no institution should be beyond criticism. The mind must be critical and skeptical then if is to be free. It must entertain doubts about beliefs and assumptions no matter how generally accepted they may be. It must be free from bias and prejudice; and it must not stoop to faultfinding. Instead, it must always subject even the generally accepted beliefs and assumptions to constant critical or scientific scrutiny until their validity is sufficiently proven.

The free mind is tolerant. It is open to new ideas of all kinds, believing that every man-regardless of nationality, race, creed or economic or social status-has potential contribution to make to the sum total of human knowledge.

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The author is SST I at Diosdado Macapagal Memorial High School,

Floridablanca