Although my FB posts, website blurbs, and newspaper articles pull no punches in articulating my personal take on the issues, my teaching style is very different. My approach in the college classroom is objective and Socratic, allowing students to think for themselves by following reason wherever it may lead. In philosophy classes I do not give my own opinions or conclusions on ethical issues in the attempt to not influence or short-circuit the process of students discovering, and owning, their own reasoned conclusions.
I have a tradition at the end of each semester, after the final exam is completed and the semester is officially over, to invite whomever would like to remain after the exam to ask me questions about where I personally stand on the issues covered in class and my reasons why. Tonight almost half the class remained for this discussion.
I have two general observations from this accumulated end-of-semester experience.
The first is that there are three categories of students to consider. The first are those starving for the truth. This is the majority. They have been raised in a culture of intellectual and moral chaos and are utterly confused and dissatisfied. Most sense an alternative to what the world offers, but do not know what it is. Their hearts are open. The second category are those who aren’t ready for the truth. They know their thinking is inconsistent and unreasonable, but are not yet ready to challenge it or examine themselves. This is often due to fear that it may be too painful to handle at this point in their lives. The third category are those whose hearts are hardened and closed. They often come to class with daggers in their eyes, and you can sense the anger and animosity when they walk in the room. Fortunately, there is an average of only one student per class in this category. It’s almost always a female.
The second observation is that foreign students raised in non-western countries think much more clearly than American students. They haven’t been bogged down by the nihilistic propaganda piped in through the media and confirmed by academia. They have not been formed in the poison of secular progressivism and did not have to sift through all the intellectual and moral snares and pressures that haunt young Americans daily.
I left the building tonight feeling rather hopeful. It may not a lost cause. But they must be reached before middle age makes them too comfortable or too angry to embrace truth. Most young people today are open and hungry for it, as painfully confused as they may be; but if more sane people do not step up and willingly take the punches for their courage and perseverance in our culture of denial, they will remain lost.
Let me know your thoughts on this.