Wednesday, April 25, 2012

What for is a college education if not to critique?

Glenn Greenwald writes in the context of an UCLA professor running into "trouble" for his views on Israel:
what kind of person goes to an academic institution and then demands to be shielded from political ideas that they find objectionable? Of all places, academia is supposed to permit and encourage the challenging of one’s assumptions and beliefs. At least in theory, that’s the prime value of studying at a university: learning how to think critically, which requires subjecting one’s views to rigorous dispute. 
Yep, one more reason to worry that there is something seriously wrong with how we approach higher education!

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