This is a question I've been unable to formulate since I've been here at Colgate and now it seems suddenly clear to me. With an education like the one I'm getting, at one of the top schools in the nation, with excellent professors and an excellent liberal arts learning environment, why does something still feel missing academically? Why do I still want something more? Certainly not more work, I have quite enough of that thank you very much. No, this flaw in the Colgate system, (and I think, to a greater or lesser extent at different schools, the American college system) is nothing the professors can do anything about. Now comes the part where I make a lot of generalizations which will assuredly not be true in all cases. Please bear with me.
The problem is extracurricular discourse and discussion. From all my reading, both historical and literary, I gather that at various points in the American past, college students passed much of their time in discussion and friendly debate with one another about various issues ranging from philosophy, to music, to religion, to literature, to politics, and so forth. Dissenting opinions were welcomed and even sought out, even among the best of friends. In fact, in some cases the friends who truly were the best of friends were those with the most diverging views, because it facilitated the most interesting discourse and maximized learning and expanded perspectives on both sides. The issues up for debate were, of course, different at various moments in history. Princeton in the 20's, for example, would have fostered significantly more debate on literature and philosophy, whereas the 60's saw a great deal more concern for political issues.
This is not to say these things are nonexistent today. However, a significant number of people I have spoken to not only find the idea of people spending a couple hours debating the existence of God, in a respectful and tolerant manner, "weird" or "unfathomable", they would themselves feel extremely uncomfortable in such a situation. The reasons for this are twofold: for one, people today do not like to have their beliefs challenged in one way or another, and for another, people frequently take any such challenge as a challenge to their character and shut out the other person entirely. What people do not realize is that academic fulfillment and true intellectual growth are most fully realized in these situations. Without true scholastic discussion, we are all merely running around with our hands over our ears and our mouths spouting inaudible nonsense while we cling to familiarity and condemn difference and dissent. Indeed, divergence from a popularly held opinion is the quickest ticket to a social and/or academic leper colony in this environment of intellectual conformity. Try offering a religious perspective in Western Traditions to see what I mean.
The unwillingness to listen to others is one reason the nation has become so polarized, politically and socially. How many times do we hear people say something we disagree with, but choose not to respond, for reason ranging from fear of being attacked or shunned for our opinions, to fear of having the other person mistake our disagreement for an attack on them, to simple fear of debate or tension or "awkwardness." If people listened to each other, and stopped for a moment to consider that everyone has something to say that is worth hearing, perhaps we could get to the real heart of the issues and recognize our common ground and go from there. We could acknowledge that nobody wants anyone excluded from health care and then sit down in respectful discussion to determine how best to attain this goal. We could cease arguing about things that have concrete answers substantiated by facts (by merely opening our eyes and recognizing that a birth certificate is, in fact, proof that one was born in the United States). If we could stop closing our ears and opening our mouths about easy issues like these, we could be less afraid to argue on more complicated and polarizing issues, like abortion and gay marriage and so on. People seem to believe a pro-life person and a pro-choice person cannot sit down and respectfully and rationally discuss the issue without tearing each other apart. Thus, rational discussion is almost nonexistent. The playing field becomes dominated by radicals and extremists on both sides, whose vitriol and verbal sparring (or worse) undermine both sides and cause the breakdown in communication so prevalent today, a breakdown which makes it taboo to discuss almost anything relevant. Thus, we talk about sports and our neighbors and TV and pretend to feel good about our unfulfilling consensus.
This is the world we will be entering in a few years. And how are we being trained to combat this? We aren't. We think ourselves intelligent and cultured and somehow better than everybody else, but what have we done, really? We go to class, we cram for an exam, we get good grades, and we all forget most of what we learned by the next semester. We enter the real world in some capacity and begin to live just like everyone else, earning money so we can buy cars and iPhones and jewelry. What have we learned that we can carry with us into the world? College is not a time to absorb all the minute details and facts that we can possibly cram into our minds and hope that they all stay there through our lives. College is about learning how to think, how to interact, how to challenge and dissent, how to respond to challenges and different points of view, how to be true intellectuals and true human beings. Yet here at this training ground for the rest of our lives, what are we really learning? How many people will really take these lessons out of college? When I walk through Frank Dining Hall or sit on the Cruiser, I do not hear people discussing Plato or health care or the existence of God or the merits of modern music. No, mostly I hear sordid tales of weekend misadventures and cliquish social intrigue. If this is what we're really learning to take out into the real world, is it any wonder that it is in the state that it is? Can one be an alcoholic at school and immediately become a sober family man thereafter. Can one make poor choices week in and week out and hope to be responsible in business, medicine, academia, or whatever one chooses to do after college?
The fact is few can do these things. We can sit in a classroom and take notes every day and write our formulaic papers, and we will certainly learn. We may even pass with flying colors if we keep our heads about us. But even among the comparatively responsible and studious, academic discussion is less than prevalent. This needs to change if we are to go forth into society to truly make a difference in it. America does not need more businesspeople and politicians, teachers and artists. It needs thinkers and feelers, lovers and dreamers. It needs rational, respectful, conscientious individuals with some sense of integrity. And most of all, it needs dissent. America cannot function without healthy dissent. Dissent is not treason, argument is not a personal attack, rebuttal is not reprisal. When we can look someone whose views differ starkly from our own in the eye and say "I respect you as an individual and I will listen to what you have to say with the full knowledge that you will also listen to me, and I will attempt to find any common group that we can with you", then we can consider ourselves educated and cultured. Then, the college system will have done its job. Then, America can become truly great once again.
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