Eric Sukumaran | The most important lesson I learned at Penn

My time here comes to a close. I only got three years at Penn because I transferred here and I found out the difference between a good university and a great one (relax, this is the great one).

Yet I feel a certain sense of disappointment that we, at an elite university, are not coming away with the education we should have received. I'm not talking about the quality of the teaching and syllabi and facilities - all of those are excellent, as is the caliber, I am sure, of the great majority of the students here.

No, I am talking about another aspect of education. As we have our minds opened and molded, the way we think and approach the world is as much a mark of our education as our ability to conduct complex scientific experiments, solve differential equations or construct discounted cash flow models.

Educated people value discourse - or at least they should. We should have been taught at Penn that the real way to deal with those who disagree with us is to be polite, actually deal with their position and not insult them randomly. We don't receive a specific class on it, but it's something rather more implicit, something we pick up in this environment. I feel as if not enough people from Penn will come away with that - and that is disappointing.

For example, when Karl Rove came to Penn, I was quite ashamed of my fellow student body members during the question-and-answer session. The first guy who stood up called Mr. Rove a cancer on America and ranted and raved at him before sitting down without asking a question. Another one asked him why the president pronounced nuclear "new-kew-lur".

Or take the backlash against women's-only gym hours. As I pointed out in The Spin, I would disagree with the policy. All humor aside, one of my reasons for disagreeing was not that I disliked Muslim values. Yet that was the position taken on comments posted on the online version of the article. For example: "Slowly but surely the Muslims are killing our country. What ever happened to our Constitution and freedoms!"

Firstly, there should be a question mark at the end of the second sentence. If you are going to espouse closed-minded views, at least use the correct grammatical structures.

But more importantly, taking a nuanced view is another part of being educated. Knowing where to draw the line between cultural relativism and cultural absolutism is made easier with an education. We can accommodate many values of many cultures -- perhaps not all of them, but we've been taught to reason, and the comments cited above show an instance in which the authors chose not to use reason but instead let xenophobia get the better of them. Xenophobia is a fear of things we do not understand. We are here at this University to try to understand things - when we choose not make the effort that is at the very least a giant waste of tuition fees and at most a betrayal of the values of a liberal-arts education. The London School of Economics has a motto: rerum cognoscere causas. It means to "know the causes of things." That is what we have been taught to work toward - and we should never forget it.

But it doesn't have to big things like shouting at Karl Rove or hating Muslims. The temptation to descend into the polemic often plagues many opinions.

Consider one student's reaction to The Daily Pennsylvanian's endorsement of Hillary Clinton. The author decided that instead of just sticking to countering the paper's points with his own, he would essentially call everyone on the Opinion Board stupid and capable only of "deplorably shallow reasoning." He did make substantive points, but coupling this with insults actually weakened his argument. Writing with such vitriol, he did Barack Obama no favors by identifying himself as an Obama fan. (You can find the author's comments on the Penn Dems Web site blog). This student has three years left at Penn (I'm jealous). I hope the lessons I talked about above rub off on him.

We must not fall into the trap where thinking that having an elite education from one of the best universities in the world means that we know best. It is an astonishing arrogance that I find in a lot more people than you would think. It leads to exactly the sort of vituperative reactions and unbridled derision that were thrown at Rove.

We spend our time reading books and articles that professors have written, passionately disagreeing with one another. So it is possible, and right, to be passionate and not descend into ad hominem attacks at the same time.

As this class graduates, and those that follow it do as well, we should bear in mind that our education has given us a wonderful gift - the ability to make our choices in an informed manner and to defend those choices with wit, politeness, eloquence and intelligence. I respect those who make their points and back them up and don't just decide someone else is wrong and deride them.

I'm about to join the archives of this newspaper. Even more importantly, I am about to join the ranks of the 251 graduating classes who have come before me - in whose illustrious company I am privileged and humbled to soon be.

So, let my last words to you (in this newspaper) be the following:

We were taught to open our minds here and to keep them open after we leave. Do it.

Eric Sukumaran is a College senior and Spin blogger from London. His email address is se@sas.upenn.edu.

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