two ways for the classroom

Among the things I wrote in a letter I’ll leave with my daughter after we move her into her dorm for freshman year tomorrow:

A good classroom contains a mix of truth-seeking and social cohesion. Both are important; you probably can’t get to real truth-seeking without some bedrock of the cohesion part. But it is possible to foreclose truth-seeking by making cohesion the only goal. Students may speak about this as “validating” each other’s experiences or by insisting on only elevating exceptions to all generalized principles before the principles can get real analytical traction. You need the high contrast between these two: a dedicated good will and easy humor among everyone in the room, and a rigorous, almost bloodless pursuit of what’s true. Don’t be afraid to just point out this necessity to your fellow classmates: we’re trying to hold tight these two ways to be together, and it’s not easy.