At a time when many people are wondering about the value of a college education, those who are in charge of those institutions would be well advised to recognize that their business should be a mental gym; a place where minds and souls are strengthened.
-Michael Wade, as he opens this post
Fifty some years ago, I spent a college semester at Denison University listening to Professor Robert Toplin in a class called Latin America: Evolution or Revolution. We had two 2-hour classes per week. In the first hour of each session Toplin would take the "right wing" point of view on some topic and argue it persuasively. In the second hour of each session Toplin would take the "left wing" point of view on the same topic and argue it equally persuasively. Being typical college students, we got confused. We initially started out trying to figure out Toplin's true opinion, so we could feed it back to him on tests and papers. Took us a while, but we finally discovered that he didn't care what we thought—just so long as we actually did the work of thinking. Toplin taught me one of the most valuable life lessons available: how to think for myself. I have been grateful for him ever since.
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