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There’s a saying that gets thrown about a hell of a lot these days. It goes a little something like this: “If you tell a lie big enough, and keep on repeating it, the people will come to believe it.” The quote is generally attributed to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. However, in a stunning display of irony, it turns out he never said it.
Instead, someone paraphrased a speech of his, and this phrasing has been reproduced hundreds of thousands of times by uncritical researchers and historians.
We live in an age that is often described as “post-truth”. We are perilously close to seeing someone become US president whose entire campaign is built on a series of lies regarding his opponent, perpetuated over and over again with a sneering bravado in his public appearances. Social media is awash with preposterous conspiracy theories, shared over and over again with nary a moment’s hesitation. In the UK, Brexit’s success, it appears, was predicated on a series of mistruths regarding both immigration and NHS funding.
As educators, this sidewards lurch into the unreasonable places us in a unique position. Do we challenge the patent untruths that our students bring with them into the classroom, possibly raising the ire of parents and guardians? Or do we instead take the safe path and let sleeping dogs lie? These concerns can’t be dismissed with a simple: “It probably doesn’t have relevance to the curriculum” - many of the changes being made and decisions taken within our society are now beginning to transform it in fundamental ways.
Teach students to discern bias
I believe that it is the duty of teachers to be brave and challenge these mistruths. Furthermore, I believe it is our job - especially for those of us within the humanities - to develop and foster the ability to reason within our students. We need a greater focus on teaching students to unpack the statements of those in power, evaluate them for truth and discern their bias.
Students need to understand that both rationalism and empiricism are essential in making good decisions, rather than base emotional responses. As highfalutin as it sounds, the elements of a classical education, seemingly long tossed aside, need to make a return if we’re going to produce a generation of young people who know nonsense when they come across it.
So, how do we do this? The first thing that needs to happen is that teachers, from primary onwards, need to take a leap in the dark and step away from spoonfeeding that caters to testing.
We need to bring the real world into the classroom in the form of a diverse variety of resources that stretch students and demand that they put in the hard work to interpret them. Deconstructing challenging English texts needs to begin earlier - much, much earlier - in a child’s education. Science and maths need to renew their focus on imparting mastery of method. The study of history needs to embed itself throughout the curriculum, constantly placing current affairs and issues into their historical context.
It seems to me that the only way that we are going emerge from the contemporary age of stupid is by avoiding the temptation to dumb down the curriculum. The only way we’re going to develop students who can reason is by throwing the kind of challenging stuff that forces them to do so. We need to gird our loins, trust in the ability of our kids to handle difficult work and get tough.
Just think of the alternative. Nothing could Trump that.
Mike Stuchbery is a teacher and blogger. He tweets as @MrMStuchbery
