Messing Up Minds

I sometimes quip that one of the things I enjoy about teaching college is that it gives me the opportunity to mess up students’ minds. Yet that is one of the responsibilities we have as college teachers. Most students come to college with their minds programmed by parents, peers, media, religious instruction, education, etc. The thinking of students is dependent upon what they have been told by others. One purpose of college instruction is to help students think independently. This does not mean that students will necessarily reject what they have previously thought. Rather, students will come to own what they think. They may decide to confirm their previously held views or revise them. The key is that they will decide for themselves. This means, as college instructors, we must expose students to alternative views and give them the tools for coming to their own conclusions.