Unknown Frontiers
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust
One of the focuses of my teaching has been viewing the world through different eyes. I have met many people in my life and the ones that piss me off the most are the ones that are closed minded. How does one go through life completely shut off to any other ideas? I’m not sure, but it seems many people do. This is a fatal flaw that I mean to correct.
I hope that students come out of my classes with at least a respect for others’ ideas. I don’t care if they agree with the other ideas as long as they respect the other ideas. How do we even know what we believe when we cannot even recognize the other ideas? Again, it seems impossible to me, but somehow people do it.
Example in point: American political parties.
I teach government. I don’t teach “adhere to my political beliefs because I am the teacher.” When we get to the chapter on political parties, I want to teach my students about the political parties. Investigate their platforms, or lack there of. Write a few opinion papers. Then make their decisions. Students constantly ask me “Which party to you vote for?” And my response is always the same, “All you need to know is that I vote, not who I vote for.” I just want the students to entertain opposing ideas.
How do we grow if we cannot see the possible paths out there? We need to entertain the choices, the varying ways things could go. We need to look at the unknown with different eyes. I choose rose colored glasses for my new eyes.
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