As a teacher of literature to high school juniors and seniors, I found that teaching point of view was often misinterpreted as opinion.
It seems that this confusion exists in other areas, too, from editorials in magazines and newspapers to talk shows on television and radio, to conversations between friends over hamburgers and beer. It can be downright dangerous within a family.
We are all entitled to our opinions, right? We are entitled to be wrong, too, but we don't like to admit it.
What I find interesting is that most of us look to reliable sources of information when we are forming opinions. The problem is that we are often searching for affirmation rather than information. That's why the conservatives watch Fox News and the not-so-conservatives watch MSNBC.
We like to have our opinions validated. All of us. There is no feeling quite so triumphant than to sit down at a table with friends and find that we all share pretty much the same feelings about - oh, politics, religion, the economy. But there is nothing quite so uncomfortable as sitting down at a table with friends and discover that they all hate the candidate you like best, or all embrace a faith that you don't share, or have solutions for the country's huge debt load that you think are whacko.
That group of friends probably would not ask you to join them again, nor would you go if you were asked.
So, my point of view on this subject is that we should more-broadly inform ourselves on almost any topic so that we can embrace more than one person's opinion. That is gathering information and not affirmation.
If affirmation is more comfortable, and information is threatening to your position on any subject, just maybe your point of view needs a little stretching, a bit of painful recognition of ideas that don't match the ones you already have.
That goes for me, too.
I have a business professor whose opinion definitely shades her teaching stance or point of view.
ReplyDeleteIt is my opinion this does a great disservice to students. Students have no reason to assume anything the prof is teaching could have alternate points of view.
I sit back and inject questions into her diatribes all the time. Not in an abusive, disrespectful way of course.
I do it for two reasons;
One- to encourage alternate thought processes of the younger students and
Two- the more I can understand and assess her opinion (and subsequent teaching point of view), the better I can defend mine.
Cordovan, I do agree with you...and the classes I enjoyed most were the ones where students asked questions and even argued with me. That is learning at its best - in my opinion.
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