The Death of Logic in a College Classroom

In this troubling Chronicle of Higher Education article, Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs, a professor at Southern Missouri State University, describes a recent change in her classroom. For the last twelve years, her public-speaking course has provided a delightful (if exhausting) forum for ideas, provocative exchanges, clarification, and redirection. But in a discussion this semester about demagoguery and the ethical obligations of public speaking (telling the truth and taking responsibility for what you say) a young woman raised her hand and said that Barack Obama was a perfect example of a demagogue because he wanted to “take all our guns away because of Sandy Hook – which may or may not be a hoax – and he had little kids sit on his lap, and that was just like what Hitler did to get people’s support.” When challenged on her facts, the student just looked defiantly at the professor. 

In a different class, a young man argued that Obama was trying to “take away” guns when a semiautomatic weapon wasn’t even used at Sandy Hook. Clubbs countered with a detailed list of the three weapons that were used by the killer, and the student said the police had found the rifle in Lanza’s car. Clubbs corrected him: a shotgun was found in his car. The student shook his head dismissively. Another student suggested that Sandy Hook might be a hoax because “there was a little girl who was supposed to be dead, and she showed up alive.” 

Clubbs was stunned: “I realized in that moment that class discussion as I knew it may have come to an end. I would still hold discussions, of course, but I knew that I would never be able to go into them with the same attitude I had previously – I would always fear this descent into a non-evidence-based reality. Previously, although we may have disagreed, we had what I told my classes was ‘civil discourse.’ But we had to agree on the facts. We could all have different opinions, but we couldn’t be basing our opinions on different facts. Now I realized that in the age of Facebook memes and YouTube conspiracy videos, my students had somehow got the idea that facts were subjective and supporting material unnecessary. They seem to be following ‘opinion leaders’ who model how to respond when they are challenged: vilify and name-call.”

Clubbs considers herself an optimist – why else would she be teaching? “But despite my optimism,” she concludes, “even I had to admit that 16 weeks wasn’t long enough to provide the lessons some students would need to repair their critical thinking.” 

“No, You Can’t Say Whatever You Want” by Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 22, 2013 (Vol. LIX, #24, p. B20), e-link for subscribers only

From the Marshall Memo #474