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issue153 "Students should bring a certain skepticism to whatever they study. They should question what they are taught instead of accepting it passively."
未限时协作,请各位大侠多多指教
I agree insofar with the author's statement. In my point of view, it is reasonable that the students should, instead of accepting what they have been taught passively, learn to question what they have learned and keep a skeptical mind. However, the assertion that students should doubt everything is overstated.
In the first place, skepticism of learning can benefit students in learning significantly. Educationists who want students to emphasis on skepticism are not expecting students to find the flaws in the well-founded axioms, but hoping them are able to, in this way, master and comprehend what they have already learned. In order to question the knowledge the have learned, the students have to comprehend the knowledge at first. They may have to review their textbooks, clarify the meaning of every parameter, and learn relatively knowledge extensively to find the points to attack in these seemingly well-reasoned theorems. In this process, the students will at least master their knowledge better, learn extra knowledge and possess of the spirit of skepticism, which will certainly benefit them in the future. In contrast, these students who simply accept what they have been taught passively cannot take the advantages of skepticism mentioned above. And they may even lose interest in learning gradually. Conclusively, it is as clear as daylight that bringing skepticism towards the knowledge which are imparted to the students will benefit their studying.
Moreover, culturing the students the spirit of skepticism will not only benefit the students, but also the whole society. Students are not always students: they will be engineers, scientists, and much else in the future. After they have chosen their careers, it is their time to develop theories in their fields and to contribute to the society. Only by doubting can a widely-accepted theory be replaced by a newer, more refined one and in this way can our science and technology progress. Galileo doubted Aristotle's claim that heavier subjects would fall faster than the lighter ones. His spirit of knowledge not only conferred him the title “the father of modern physics", but also brought about the time of classical physics which was a significant advance of science and added to base of knowledge. Similarly, it was the skeptical mind towards Newton Laws which had been accepted as facts for centuries that enabled Albert Einstein to establish the theory of relativity and turn over a new page in Physics. Another telling example that can illustrate this point involved the discovery of Pluto. While the passive knowledge receivers among William Tombaugh’s contemporaries merely took it for granted that eight planets theory printed on there textbooks was indubitable, Tombaugh doubted the accepted the eight planets theory which was recognized by authority and take the chance to make one of the greatest astronomical discoveries. If he just accepted the knowledge without doubting, we may never realize the existence of this planet, or dwarf planet.
On the other hand, however, we should be conscious that undue skepticism towards everything would have some negative effects. As we all know, skepticism does not work in disciplines like language learning. In these fields, the rules are created by human beings instead of nature. If a student keeps questioning the grammar rules and the usage of words rather than accepting them as facts, he will make little progress. In addition, since skeptic method demands much time, it is impossible to doubt every thing. The essence of the skepticism is to question the basis of certain information while merely doubting the unimportant message is no more than a waste of time.
In sum, keeping skeptical in learning can benefit the students and the whole society. Nevertheless, as questioning everything will lower the efficiency of the studying, the students should determine a balance between skepticism and acceptances. |
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