What is truth? What is real and what isn’t? Are we “entitled,” under the guise of free speech, to embrace whatever crackpot theories and conspiracies are peddled in social and public media? Is the earth “flat” because tens of thousands of people believe it is? What is the link (or, as it may happen, the disconnect) between fact and belief? Is climate change real or a “hoax”? How should we navigate a world in which anyone and everything is capable of being manipulated and twisted to serve the purpose of postulating alternate realities?
No, I do not propose or have simple answers to these questions. The point is that they – as well as a host of others that guide us through the labyrinth of life – must be asked – in schools and in just about any place where people gather to hold intelligent conversations and discussions with agreed-upon norms and rules. These are not “trendy” or tedious questions that will come and fade like fashion styles; they are existential in that they define our humanity and shape what we are capable of becoming, for better or worse.
But are schools putting questions like these and hundreds of…
