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Response Paper: Opinions

“An excellent (though somewhat irascible) teacher colleague of mine once said to me, “I don’t want to instill strong opinions in my students.

Every bonehead on the street has strong opinions. Education is about forming better questions.

If I can get my students to be a little less confident in their own answers, and begin to question why they say what they say and think what they think, then I’ve done my job.” What do you make of this comment?”

My first English professor in college had very strong opinions about almost everything. He would always ask us to right papers voicing our opinion on matters he viewed as significant. I often felt like I had nothing to say in those papers.

I just did not care to have an opinion some of the things he wanted us to have an opinion about.

These matters seemed insignificant to me. I would think to myself, what is my opinion? I would try searching deep in my sea of thoughts. Then I would come up empty handed. I was simply impartial.

I do believe people should have strong opinions on certain matters. One cannot be indifferent to everything. However strong opinions in every, single arena of issues does not seem necessary.

I find fault in the professor’s assertion in the quote, “I don’t want to instill strong opinions in my students. Every bonehead on the street has strong opinions. Education is about forming better questions.

If I can get my students to be a little less confident in their own answers, and begin to question why they say what they say and think what they think, then I’ve done my job.” Here the professor clearly states he does not want to instill strong opinions in his students but by him getting his students to ask “better questions”, he is leading them to form strong opinions.

The idea of having a professor help his students ask “better questions” is one that is attractive to me as a student. Asking better questions entails thinking, something which all professors should aim to get their students to do.

Also, with better questions come better answers; ones that are more confident and clear. These answers may lead to strong opinions. Hence, asking “better questions”, will lead to the formation of strong opinions