Campus debate: View from the outside (2)

As a "fly on the wall" observer of Malta's general election campaign, I found the report of the recent political meeting at the University interesting reading; and having spent over 45 years teaching at senior school and university level in the UK, I was not a little surprised at the reported reaction of the "student" audience.

Thinking back to my own student days, most of us were enthusiastic radicals with fire in our bellies, desperate to change the world, and vehemently critical of the Establishment.

Inevitably, over the intervening years the pragmatism of life experience has undoubtedly mellowed our view of the world. However, I am sure that the initial "fire" of youth enabled us to make a useful contribution to the quality of life of our fellow human beings and the fragile environment within which we all exist. Throughout my professional career I encouraged my students to engage in positive intellectual criticism, probing and questioning without reservation every area of human activity, not least the motives of politicians. My advice to everyone was: Always insist that politicians of whatever party answer the question that you want to ask, and not the one that they would prefer to answer. Such occasions may become heated, but always be aware that the loudest shout may drown the discussion, but rarely win the intellectual debate. Indeed, often the noisier the rhetoric, the greater the poverty of an argument.

Finally, I was always concerned when students unquestioningly accepted the status quo; for if they had no burning desire to change their world at 20, what could we expect of them by the time they were 50?