GRE essay: Student should bring a certain skepticism to whatever they study

[cherryli2008]

Student should bring a certain skepticism to whatever they study. They should question what
they are taught instead of accepting it passively.

I strongly agree with the assertion that students should be skeptical to what they study and with the speaker's suggestion that they should question what they are taught rather han accept it passively, insofar as it is an effective way by which students can learn how to think critically and the very foundation by which human knowledge advances. If we were all to accept on blind faith all that we are taught, our society would never progress or evolve.

First of all, one reason why I essentially agree with the speaker is that few can ensure
the fact what the educators teach the students and the contents of the materials used for education are always precise without mistakes. Admittedly, textbooks and materials for lessons, through which students chiefly learn knowledge, always demand high correctness rate, for the simple reason that it makes possible the effective teaching. This is not to say, however, that such materials are always telling the truth that can never be proven wrong. After all, they are written by humans, such as our teachers, professors, scientists and editors. Human make mistakes sometimes. Therefore, these materials and textbooks are the things that our students can always be critical to.

Secondly, being skeptical to what they learn and even everything around their lives is the crucial means by which our students can practise their creative and critical thinking, which is vital for the whole personal development of an individual and can help the person pursue gainful future career. According to my observation, students who are used to think creatively and critically tend to gain a better acadamic performance than those who fail to do so. As an excellent student once mentioned, criticizing problems and issues will serve useful purposes for training one's mind, by leading the individual to view things at different angles and helping him or her
obtain a deeper insight of the knowledge taught at school. In short, training students to be critical is to train them to become productive members of the society.

Finally, the last reason with my agreement with the speaker of the contention is that it is the ability of being skeptical that advance human knowledge and make contribution to the development of technology. One striking example that aptly illustrates this point involve the famous physical scientist, Newton. If he had just passively accepted the fact the apples can drop from the trees, he would never had the chance to make one of greatest discovery of gravitational force, which
amounted to an enormous step in the history of development of force theory. Consider also less egregious example, such as Copernicus who asserted sun-centered theory. Although earth-centered thoery was widely accepted at the time influenced by religious notions, which he once criticized, he never gave up promoting his assertion that the universe was centered with the sun which was proved true nowadays.

By recognizing the significance of the ability of skepticism, students should also be conscious that undue skepticism might be counterproductive to learning, for that observation and common sense informs us that youngsters must first develop a foundation of experimental knowledge before they can begin to think critically about what they are learning. They should be able to distinguish whether what
teachers tell them is well worth questioning or not; Otherwise, it is just a waste of time and energy to intentionly criticize everything.

In the final analysis, I totally agree with the speaker's assertion that students should learn to be skeptical instead of passively accept what they have learned, since it would be beneficial for students to enhance their ability of thinking. Moreover, this kind of thinking method s also the basis upon which technology developes. Accordingly, in my view, the speaker's assertion is fundamentally correct.