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Letters | What Hong Kong students learn from liberal studies is how to live with different views

By teaching students how to think from others’ perspectives, and helping them see that actions have consequences, liberal studies, as currently taught, can actually prevent political extremism.

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A 2018 survey by the Professional Teachers Union showed nearly 80 per cent of teachers supported keeping liberal studies as a compulsory subject in schools. Photo: Handout
On July 7, Henry Kwok wrote that liberal studies, if properly taught, can help defuse political extremism. I would argue further that, even if the high school subject stays the same, it could still serve this function.

The author criticised the subject’s assessment method. He said students are assessed on their “ability to write structured essays”, rather than showing critical thinking. This relates to the framework of “multiple perspectives”, whereby students are encouraged to discuss the viewpoints of various stakeholders.

While answers derived from this approach are not logically the tightest, this process helps students put themselves into others people’s shoes. Hopefully, they can then realise that diverse but often equally persuasive views can exist, and recognise that an answer to a societal problem is often a trade-off among competing values, and a compromise between interest groups.

Furthermore, liberal studies instils basic knowledge into teenagers. At their age, most of them are bound to rely on fragmented information when engaging in political participation. This danger is compounded by their reliance on social media – an echo chamber. If students are exposed to facts and the history of our world, they can better calculate the likely consequences of their actions. They may stop before acting in extreme ways, since they know that even behaviour with genuine motives can harm society.

Let’s not succumb to short-termism or scapegoat a subject that could win calm in our society.
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