COLUMN: Think Before You Speak

From Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar's "Think or Thwim," Winter '94 From Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar's "Think or Thwim," Winter '94Ah, the wonders of returning to class... Well, so we hope. Inevitably, however, before the first hour is up, class discussion is assuaged by the puzzling utterances of students talking about nothing. Without a raised hand in sight, long-winded chronicles cloud any constructive debates. Far from being the fiercely analytical testing-grounds for new ideas that the first defenders of free speech imagined them to be, classrooms have evolved into a symposium for anecdotes about adventures with the neighbor's plumbing or just how bad the ice is outside. Class participation is reduced to just that, participation rather than contribution. Instead of pushing forward a debate by making the effort to develop a distinct idea, many are only too happy to affirm their belonging to the group by throwing in their story. As detrimental as this may be to the intellectual ebullience of the classroom, there is a very discernible culprit for this phenomenon – the educational system itself. When people walk out of high school with a rZsumZ chock–full of honor society this and special club that, it is little wonder that they feel confident enough to share their each and every thought with their fellow seekers of knowledge. This, of course, is the whole idea: under the assumption that you are an individual, you are praised throughout your educational years and told that it is good to speak. Often enough, at the end of it all, you will even be given a little vinyl folder with a certificate in it so that you remember that's what America is all about. However, this may be where the teachings of the meritocratic education system have gone wrong. The aims of freedom of speech, a progressive appraisal of the truth based on all existing ideas, have been defeated by the policies that uphold it. With everyone thinking they are so unique and valuable, there is no self criticism to be seen. Truth is just another value that is buried and unchangeable in the eye of the beholder. Being right is then an assumption and everyone readily spurts out their opinion, regardless of its relevance and novelty. In a recent Psychology class one student's bungled attempt to link his distaste for RC cola to learned helplessness proved once again that the concern for having a valid point is often completely absent from most American public forums. Indeed, beyond the classroom, other examples are continuously flying out of high rise windows or scurrying along cable lines. The televised blabbering of Donahue et al and the few dozen "Yes I know how you feel, this happened to me too" audience members that accompany them only serve to reinforce this habit of gratuitous speaking. This is not to say that speech should be reserved to those who deserve it. You can soliloquize to your bathroom mirror all you want. What is questionable is whether any individual should interrupt a concentrated professor with their half-chewed wanderings. The problem is that in the eternal tension between the values of individualism and common good on which this country is based, individualism is getting the better side of the seesaw. With free speech so very much in the spotlight, the defense of every individual's rights above all else is now being reinforced by new policies in educational institutions such as this one. Perhaps even more than before, people will want the speaking time they feel entitled to. If higher education is about making strong individuals then granted, it may be important to make sure people grow up feeling they have a right to say what they think. It strikes me as crucially more important, however, that students grow up actually having something to say. Self-righteousness might be defendable if people were actually encouraged to ponder their own ideas and be open to those of others. But if classroom discussions are limited to everybody's two cents, there is little to be taught and still less to be learnt. Andrew Wanliss–Orlebar is a senior Communications major from Paris, France. Think or Thwim will appear alternate Tuesdays.