High schoolers think they have a lot of things figured out, but Alex Zhai questions the validity of their views. Sometimes an admission of ignorance is the smartest position to take.

ALEX ZHAI
Gargoyle assistant editor
Posted Friday, April 27, 2007
Opinions

THERE IS A certain expectation for intelligent high school students to have opinions on important matters. What's your position on the Iraq war? Should we raise taxes for the rich? Whom do you support in the 2008 elections?

These are all questions that arise implicitly in conversations about politics. A neutral or equivocal answer gives the impression that you don't care.

But what if I don't know? Considering how deep these subjects are, I should have a right to plead ignorance. That doesn't mean I am apathetic. I just don't have the time to figure out what position I really believe in.

Much of our education is based on forming opinions and learning how to support them. It explains why we write so many persuasive essays starting in third or fourth grade. While persuasion and rhetoric are important to learn, though, they emphasize strength of argument at the potential expense of veracity of argument.

At a young age, we are only taught oversimplified explanations of complex topics, like racism, yet we are encouraged to form our own opinions about these matters. The principles behind logically supporting a given position are sound, but the emphasis on supporting the position rather than scrutinizing it can blind us to the gaps and biases in the basic facts we are working with.

Buoyed by teachers' frequent reassurances that precocious preteens could operate on the same intellectual level as adults, I used to take my opinions quite seriously.

In my seventh-grade history class, we were asked to take a position on, among other “current events” issues, the Iraq War, which had not yet started at the time. I decided that the U.S. should invade if there was strong evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

In retrospect, it was an absurd assignment. We had barely discussed the 20th century history of Iraq in class, and moreover, we had covered no U.S. history at all. Looking back, what seemed like a sensible position to take at the time now seems grossly simplistic.

Four years later, the situation is as complicated as ever. Having never been to Iraq, can I really decide whether there should be a troop surge, immediate withdrawal, or the so-called “phased redeployment”?

I could read other people's written accounts, but it isn't that simple. Certainly I could find out about the lack of security there, or perhaps even the personal story of one Iraqi family, but could I get an undistorted view into the minds of the majority of Sunnis and Shiites without having even met them?

An even more complicated issue is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which also appears in history class discussions. As early as sixth grade, I have formed opinions about it, opinions which have changed about as quickly as I have learned new things. I can now honestly say that the only thing I know is that I know nothing at all.

Opinions aren't worthless in general. The functioning of American democracy relies on the judgment of millions of individuals, the overwhelming majority of whom lack complete knowledge concerning the issues. Decisions must often be made on the basis of opinions before it is even possible to analyze the situation from every angle.

However, one must recognize the great limitations to the validity of political opinions that are not based on first-hand experience or extensive research. The image of the world that students form is heavily influenced by what their teachers — whether in school or elsewhere — present. Thus, as high school students, there is a limit to how sure of ourselves we can legitimately be.

Right now, we can freely judge the world-changing decisions made by the powers that be, more or less removed from the consequences of our being right or wrong. But in a few years, we'll actually face those decisions as full-fledged members of society.

By that time, rather than simply latch onto the position that seems right or is most popular, we will have to seriously ponder over the justifications of what we believe. In order to form independent beliefs, a degree of ambivalence and self-questioning is healthy and necessary.