Issue153【超越自我小组】求拍!

apjackUID: 2381599

153. "Students should bring a certain skepticism to whatever they study. They should question what they are taught instead of accepting it passively."

Does student be skeptically question what they taught instead of straightly accepting it, as the author believes? In my opinion, I concur with the author’s contention that student should be skeptical and raise question on what they taught because predecessor’s conclusion we learned might not always be correct. Besides, skepticism and practice are catalysts bringing a better society.

As a threshold, the knowledge students are taught might not always be correct or flawless. Owing to the lack of sufficient background knowledge and adequate instruments, our ancestors were more likely to make harsh and hasty conclusions which are the knowledge taught by teacher or recorded on book. Take Aristotle who was a sage in an epoch of thousands years ago as an example. Many conclusions made from him and Aristotleans are truly excellent when human knowledge was seriously limited. They believed that our earth is the center of the world, and they were not culpable since there was neither telescope nor technique to produce telescope at that time. But if no one aims his telescope to the sky as Galileo did, people may be unaware of the existence of the galaxy until today. All in all, students should not straightly deem that knowledge instilled by teacher or book should not be incorrect.

Furthermore, skepticism acts as an impetus for sustaining human development as we see from humankind history. Healthy debate aroused by skepticism of group of people would often expedite certain development. In my observation, it is true in diverse of realms ranged from scientific to political. Consider a paramount breakthrough in scientific realm. Einstein who was a distinguished scientist in recent century refused to blindly accept the linear relation between time and space of what people deemed at that time, and thus resulted in his relativity in which it alters the conventional perception of two basics quantities in physics. Also, consider renowned saint Gandhi who was a pivotal leader in India suspect the partial laws between Indian and foreign people, and advocated nonviolence means to fight for the equity from British dominion. He finally brought Indian emancipating from unjust rules enacted by British dominance. In a word, apt skepticism on scientific theory and old-fashioned law could bring better development and beneficial to society as a whole.

Some reasonable people with different viewpoints might criticize that young children bring skepticism to whatever they learned would influence their learning progress. I concede that undue or over-exaggerated skepticism might be counterproductive in children education. For instance, when the teacher told us that one accumulated to one equates to two, we should never discredit this basic principle, because it is general accepted in our everyday lives. In short, teacher and parent should provide sufficient guidance and encouragement which abet students to be suspicious apropos.  

Finally, students should not only be skeptical, but also be practical. That means they should think and experience to eliminate faults or make correction in what they suspect; otherwise human development is still under stagnation. If Einstein had merely suspected the correctness of Newtonian mechanics, relativity theory would have not been announced. Also, if Edison had solely doubted the fiasco of the first experiment of light bulb, without any follow up, we might have still used candles at night. Thus, only by combing skeptical mind and practical action, society would steadily step forward.

Overall, knowledge inculcated by teacher and book might not be accurate or always true, students should be skeptical about what they are taught. Moreover, students should not only learn to be skeptical, but also learn to be practical.

[ 本帖最后由 apjack 于 2008-8-26 22:50 编辑 ]