Learning Does Not Require Defending the Teacher

Admiration can recruit us into a job we were never asked to take.

We learn from someone, value the work, and gradually begin defending the person as though the value of what we learned depends on winning every argument about them.

It does not.

A teacher can be criticized fairly, unfairly, intelligently, superficially, or from evidence we have not seen.

Each claim deserves its own examination.

Learning does not require us to become public relations for the teacher.

The opposite is also true.

A criticism of the person does not automatically invalidate every idea associated with them.

Intellectual independence keeps these questions separate.

What did I learn?

Does the idea survive examination?

What is actually known about the conduct being criticized?

What response, if any, is justified by the evidence?

A learner can acknowledge debt without surrendering judgment.

Gratitude does not require loyalty to every conclusion.

What is worth learning should not need us to defend the teacher in order to remain worth learning.