Wir sind bettler. Hoc est verum.

Having sat under many different college teachers I have come to realize that my teaching philosophy is much different than most of them. So I decided to write down some of my philosophies for you to consider. Please note this is for teaching adults not children.

1. My job is to bring to my students new ideas they have never heard about, or bring old ideas into new light. Now this part is pretty much in line with most teachers out there.

2. My job is to make the students think for themselves. Now this is where I start departing from many teachers out there. They believe their job is just philosophy number 1, that they are to speak and students are just to absorb. Many teachers do not want their students to disagree with them, but to believe exactly as they do.

3. My job is to create a crisis of belief in my students. That either through new information or challenges to their own beliefs I will create in them the fear that they are wrong and thus they will make sure they are right or be forced to change their views. Either way they will put more effort into finding out the truth or at least better supporting their own views through facts and logic. Yes, I know even more radical.

4. My job isn’t to make little “me’s”, my job is to make people who think critically about life and ideas, people who do not just believe something because some “teacher” or “expert” told them so, but because reason and facts support it. Now that sounds weird now doesn’t it?

5. Students learn better if they are challenged so much that they discuss and argue amongst themselves outside of class. If they do, then they will be motivated to study and learn more than they would if they just agreed with me. Aren’t I crazy?

6. Many “facts” in science and other studies seem to change often, that is why certain studies like logic, math, and plain old reason need to be focused on, so that true science and other studies can be differed from the shams. Yes I am saying that there are many false things being taught out there, and that people are not being taught how to tell truth from falsehood.

I think one of the reasons it seems our culture is falling apart is that we no longer care about actually teaching our youth and students, we just want to indoctrinate them and not have them question a thing. It seems we are more concerned about what they learn and what they can repeat back on a test then how they think or how they reason.

Sometimes I ask questions of people, without knowing the answers to the questions myself, just to get them to think. I have found that many times these people get angry just at the fact that the question was posed because, I guess, just because it questions their beliefs. I never said they were wrong, or what they believed was wrong, but when I even questioned it, they freaked out. It seems we are afraid to even thing now days, to even consider what we believe as possibility being wrong. I think that perhaps we have become too arrogant and lazy to even think about being wrong. The sentiment nowadays seems to be “hey this ‘professional’ believes this, that’s good enough for me”. It’s like “God said it, that settles it”, to which I ask “how did you know God said that, and how do you know that you are taking it the way He meant you to take it”, such beliefs are rarely simple.

When will we start thinking for ourselves again, when our teachers tell us too, or when a pro sports star tells us too? When will you?