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发表于 2006-1-20 20:33:59
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TOPIC:ISSUE 153 - "Students should bring a certain skepticism to whatever they study. They should question what they are taught instead of accepting it passively."
It is important for students to bring a certain skepticism because this attitude satisfies the purpose of education, moreover, skepticism is a valuable character-- which needs to be cultivated since people are still students--to find the truth and make the society progress. On the other hand, sometimes the modern society does not offer students enough time to skepticize whatever they are taught.
Admittedly, skepticism is to accord with the purpose of education which is to change students with an dogmatic mind into the ones with an open mind and make them become more critical, creative rather than fill them with knowledge which is said to be true. Students are not computers which have no self thoughts but the operators. What they need is not only the settled methods to use these tools which are handed down by their ancestors, but also the ability to improve these tools as well as the ways of which they can get benefits from them. Thus, they should learn to skepticize what they learn: is there a better way to solve this problem? Can we improve these facilities to accomplish this work? Students should always take these questions in mind.
Furthermore, people who are eager to find truth and have their life improved need the character of skepticism and they should cultivate it since they are still students. The knowledge handed down generation by generation may prove to be true for hundreds of years, but if there comes up a counterexample, this knowledge need to be modified. For thousands of years, people are shorting their distance from truth through this way. It was Copernicus who skepticize heliocentric theory stood out to point out geocentric theory, which make people better understand the location of the earth in the universe. On the other point, skepticism can lead to invention, if people in the past had never brought forward the question that whether human could travel faster and faster, automobiles would not arise. Moreover, since skepticism is so important, people need to develop this quality from young. While they are students when many characters are been shaped, they should try to bring a certain skepticism to their study.
On the other hand, students do not need and do not have enough time to skepticize whatever they are taught. First, the principles which are regarded as the foundation of the human society usually have been questioned thousands of times, but no one can find a counterexample so that people have to admit these principles to be true. For example, It is sure to be a waste of time to skeptize that there is no perpetual motion machine throughout the world. Second, what students learn nowadays is the knowledge summarized by their ancestors through hundreds of years, so maybe even their whole life is not enough to skepticize only a part of it.
In sum, although student can not skepticize everything they meet, they need to bring a certain skepticism to their study so that they will be competent to make the society improved when they grow up. |
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