Don’t stifle learning
True intelligence demands students have the ability to learn
Raise your hand if you know one or more people who graduated from a Florida university who are conservatives. If you raised your hand, ask yourself if the university as a liberal bastion has failed? We are constantly reminded that Gov. Ron DeSantis won by at least 19%. According to George Koehn, “New College will be run the way voters want” (Letters, March 2). In Florida, conservatives rule: the Florida Legislature, the governor’s office, and most state offices. Yikes! How and why are our liberal universities producing so many conservatives?
As a retired, tenured university professor of learning and instruction, I’ve watched the academic freedom and tenure debate rage for decades. It is not an argument about which people to keep but which ideas to keep. Letting the voters decide the curriculum of a university or public school is a slippery slope — just as it was for other important issues. In the South, voters might have decided to keep slavery, women might not be able to vote, and state’s rights would be supreme. It’s important to remember that indoctrination goes both ways — conservatives as well as liberals can push a viewpoint.
A recent New York Times article compared artificial intelligence to human thinking (Noam Chomsky: “The False Promise of ChatGPT.”). In it, the authors state that the human mind is not a statistical engine that can predict and analyze large amounts of information like AI, but rather is “an efficient and elegant system that seeks to create explanations.” They argue that true intelligence is also capable of creativity and moral thinking.
There is an old education adage that says, “Students learn to read in grades 1-3, but from grades 4 through 12, they read to learn.” Regardless of what they read — the Bible, the Constitution, social media, literature (banned or not), textbooks, or newspapers — they will read. Professional educators have the knowledge and skill base to take what students have read and help them think critically about issues that impact all our lives.
Some examples include: What is the meaning of equality? What is justice? How did the Earth start? What, if anything, is out there beyond our galaxy? What should a healthy society look like? What should a healthy individual look like? What is the purpose of war? Do we individually or as a society have a responsibility for others? How far does that responsibility extend? What impacts the environment and what should we do about it?
To explore those questions in any meaningful way, a student must know the facts, where those facts come from, how they were derived and if they can be verified. Education is a process of starting lifelong learning — gathering knowledge through reading and discussions at school, at home, at church, with friends and with teachers and parents. True intelligence means students can create explanations, be creative, and can engage in moral thinking and reasoning.
Let students read, explore ideas and form opinions. Let Florida be the state where true intelligence is formed. There is nothing to fear. Liberal schools, teachers and professors still produce a lot of conservatives — at least in Florida.