The Observer, April 13, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 24
Education should include discussions
When was the last time you had a conversation that caused you to defend your position passionately? When was the last time you spoke with conviction about your topic and not just with academic obligation? If you're like the vast majority of Case students, it wasn't in a classroom. The university classroom is a space for conversation, discussion, and dialogue. It's a place of learning and of knowledge transfer, as well as of sharing and cooperation. None of these goals can happen, however, without a desire to grow.
Growing through a university education is one of the most important aspects of receiving that education, and if we have not grown through this moment in our lives, we have wasted countless hours and immense amounts of money. What is startling to me, however, is the unwillingness of so many people in this university to seek growth through the dialogue we hold in our classes. Occasionally, we are presented with opportunities in the classroom to have extremely important conversations that may be life changing, or may at least shake our perceptions of the world and our lives to their cores and cause us to have to put them back together. These conversations typically surround issues that might be controversial, and may involve identity politics or topics of the left- and right- wings.
However, these moments are the ones where we can truly find ourselves and figure out what we believe in and stand for but so often, as a student body, we let these moments pass without taking advantage of them. I have never been in a class at Case when students in the room did not immediately stare down at their books or look out the windows and become disengaged the moment a debate began or a controversial statement was made.
The students are not the only ones at fault, however, many professors also avoid engaging these difficult topics in the classroom, perhaps out of concern for remaining politically correct or maintaining a calm classroom. How can professors expect us to grow and learn, however, if we are not presented with opportunities to speak and think over the issues which define the political, social, and economic realities of our lives? How can professors expect us to gain critical reasoning skills and speaking abilities if we are never asked to debate on difficult topics and never called to defend our positions?
I'm not sure how we can expect to get any value out of our educations if we do not want to experience new things in an effort to grow. Why are we afraid to develop ourselves, our peers, our students, and our colleagues by engaging in these important discussions?
Maybe we're all just afraid to step out of the politically correct box for fear of contextualizing our own experiences and understanding those of others. Maintaining political correctness is an excuse that prevents us from digging deeper into the political realities which comprise our society and the world. C'mon, Case Western Reserve University – get out of your box – let's stop shying away from the important issues and holding trite, academically safe chats in our classrooms, and instead delve in, have no fear, and really talk about something that matters.
