This week our essay will be focusing on the censorship of the arts. I find myself metaphorically sitting on my hands a lot trying not to give an opion, nor trying to poo-poo my students' opinions. This I think is one of my greatest teaching challenges.
C.S. Lewis writes in his Reflection on the Psalms, that people (generations) tend to assume that they stand on the apex of all wisdom and knowledge. It's a difficult practice to steer clear of that thinking -- a kind of constant drawing up of subconcious assumptions.
So in my attempts to get students to open their minds to new ideas, I'm trying to ask a lot of questions about why their opinions are true.
Students' minds have formed the way they have for innumerable reasons. I think it would be a mistake to assume that agreeing with me is progress (though I stand by my views regardign censorship). The goal should be developing students who can think about, express, and support arguments.
More to come regarding this.
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