The Importance of Thinking

             ‘Tis the season of mortarboards and tassels. This past weekend took me and my wife to Blacksburg, Virginia, to see our granddaughter Angela receive her Bachelor’s diploma from Virginia Tech. It was a grand occasion for all 13 of her family members who sat in the bleachers of Lane stadium applauding the 4,500 seniors who marched in escorted by Sir Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance and proceeded to sit in rows of chairs that just about covered the entire football field.

            I am not a big fan of academia these days, as more and more institutions of higher learning devolve into propagandists for progressive ideology. On this day there were some obligatory references by commencement speakers to favorite leftist shibboleths, like “diversity,” “global warming,” and “LGBTQ.” But mostly there was admiration for the accomplishments of the students and encouragement to meet the challenges ahead. The graduates—future doctors and veterinarians, scientists and engineers, teachers and philosophers—reciprocated with enthusiasm.

            The Virginia Polytechnic Institute, VT’s official name, is a great university with a reputation that attracts students from all over the world. In addition to the knowledge it imparts in the various disciplines, I like to think it also places an emphasis on teaching students how to think. I’ve always believed that learning how to think is more important than learning what to think. The ability to question, to discern, and to arrive at reasoned conclusions will overcome the temporary effects of indoctrination.

            I confess to a bias for conservative principles and I do agree with a quote attributed to many sages, including (falsely) to Winston Churchill: If you are not a liberal at 25 you have no heart; if you are not a conservative at 35, you have no brain. I was not quite 25 when I first voted in a presidential election…for Lyndon Johnson. (Gasp!)