Balance of Values and Academic Freedom of Inquiry

Essay by Anonymous UserHigh School, 12th gradeA+, January 1997

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In the process of life we face many challenges and many

crossroads. We have many choices and many decisions to make.

In making these decisions we must keep in mind the moral

values our parents have taught us since we were born. Those

Christian values should guide our lives and the choices we

make. These same values should also guide at school as well. In

our pursuit of knowledge, we should keep these values in mind.

In our never-ending road of learning, we are granted with

many academic freedoms. We have the freedom to question and

try to learn new ideas. We also have the freedom to disagree

with the material presented to us. We can disagree and voice our

opinions, but in an orderly fashion.

In exercising those freedoms, we should do so with

maturity and responsibility. As students, we are responsible for

learning all the content of any course we study.

We are free to

take exception to the views or information presented to us, and

we are free to reserve judgment about matters of opinions.

Sometimes, in our quest for knowledge, there becomes a

conflict between our beliefs we are accustomed to and the

material presented to us. When there is a difference, we should

not ignore the idea or block it out. We should feel free to learn

and question new ideas. Just because we learn something

doesn't mean we have to accept it. We should leave ourselves

open to new ideas. When we do this we become very well

rounded individuals.

An example of this is the issue involving the debate

between evolution and creationism. As Christians, we naturally

believe in creationism, but we shouldn't stop learning about

evolution because we don't believe in it. This makes us very

close minded. We shouldn't stop learning...