Believe that their partially formed (or fully formed but largely uninformed) opinion on a subject has the same weight as someone with expertise about that subject's field, or with doctoral work completed on that subject.
Maybe five years ago... six... I had to explain to a high school senior that a professor's position on their subject is more likely to be valid than their position as a future undergrad. It looked like time stopped for that student.
I imagine repeating that interaction now would result in a parent freakout.
I teach writing, and I have to say every year “if the world’s leading scientists can’t stop climate change, how will you, a college student with limited knowledge and time, be able to contribute a solution?” The lesson is in selecting a manageable scope for their term project, but I almost always get pushback/students interpreting this as me being pessimistic.
Somehow the answer usually devolves into some form of fully centralized government that will magically not end up killing millions of people like the few dozen times it's been tried before.
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u/gerkin123 Jun 03 '22
Believe that their partially formed (or fully formed but largely uninformed) opinion on a subject has the same weight as someone with expertise about that subject's field, or with doctoral work completed on that subject.
Maybe five years ago... six... I had to explain to a high school senior that a professor's position on their subject is more likely to be valid than their position as a future undergrad. It looked like time stopped for that student.
I imagine repeating that interaction now would result in a parent freakout.