During last Tuesday’s problem roundtable, Sarah posed her semester’s “philosophical problem”: why do students only care about themselves? I couldn’t get it out of my head afterward. There’s been a reoccurring theme in this semester’s discussions of how to teach students to think as well as write, and, for me, Sarah’s problem is at the heart of this issue. How do we teach students the value of considering the world? If we don’t, then no amount of critical thinking exercises will motivate them to actually use any newfound critical thinking skills.
I think Kroll’s article on adversarial arguments and teaching new models starts to approach some solution to this problem. I’m a lover of adversarial arguments myself. Once after a political debate with my father in-law that lasted until three in the morning, Kyle, his dad and I had to go around the circle and say three nice things about each other so we didn’t go to bed adversaries. This was sort of a cheesy device for conciliation, but it was a good reminder that despite our vast differences of opinion, we’re all basically good people wanting good things.
It’s nothing new to teach students to play the devil’s advocate, take a walk in someone else’s shoes, etc), but the actual act of acknowledging the similar values in two radically different viewpoints could, I think, help crack open the self-centered worldview of a college freshmen, letting in a little light from the outside world.
Disclaimer: I really don’t think college freshmen are terrible narcissists. They’re wonderful. I just know my biggest concerns at 19 all centered around myself, and I imagine a lot of my students are the same.
You're right. During the roundtable I was also concerned with our students not being able to see fifty feet in front of them. I was explaining what Occupy Wall Street was in class the other day and of course not all of them had heard of it. Some of them hadn't known who Steve Jobs was (rest in peace, creator/marketer of my green ipod).
ReplyDeleteI don't think being aware of the world around them is something we can teach. Honestly, some of them are, and some will never be. Getting them to talk about their own interests is difficult, as if they are embarrassed that they are members of this world and are doing anything in it. Maybe because of the unequal power structure? Is it uncool to be uninformed? Am I rambling? Yes. Yes to that last one.
Anyway, we need to make that all cool again. I really want to take my kids to the city hall and make them analyze the rhetoric of the signs of the people "occupying" city hall (one of their signs says, "I like Turtles" and, even though that is a meme, turtles are damn awesome, can't disagree). Alas, I feel I would lose several on the way. I cross the street like a Chicago person, i.e. I almost get hit by cars a lot. Too many students would die. Maybe one day.
I haven't met enough college first-years to be able to say if most of them are narcissists or not, but I *suspect* that such is the tendency. But I would guess it's a feature of the young (and I'm not saying I'm not one of the young). Aren't babies terribly preoccupied with their own wants, to the exclusion of anyone else's concerns? It gets better from there, but I was definitely still a kid when I started college.
ReplyDeleteWhat changed? I know it was good for me to be required to read a lot of literature in college. In lit, you have different viewpoints on display, if you pick the books right, and part of the trick of reading anyway is imagining yourself into another consciousness (i.e. character/authorial persona). This is an old argument I know, but I think a valid one.
P.S. ZOMBIES !!!
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