Category Archives: Education

HOW CRITICAL IS CRITICAL THINKING?

Education, , ,

Following a discussion of lateral thinking and its importance to education, the question of critical thinking arose. Just what is this thing called critical thinking and how can it be developed?

The word critical has many meanings. It can mean adverse or disapproving
comments; an analysis of the merits or faults of an idea or thing; of something at a point of crisis; or having decisive or crucial importance to an undertaking or idea.

All of these meanings are components of thinking, or processing of information. But crucial to the processing of information is having a fully informed opinion. Critical thinking is to analyze and make judgements on the merits or faults of any idea, problem or venture one is involved in. These judgements can only be made based on the information a person has.

The following thought on intelligence relevant to this discussion was posted recently:

“Central to a general understanding of intelligence (of whatever kind, at whatever stage, in whatever species) is the ability to make connections.
That, in effect, is what intelligence is. It’s a neural network.” Brad Nelson.
http://www.stubbornthings.org/teaching-three-rs/

True, and neural networks are being built within our brains constantly. That’s how we learn. New neural pathways can be formed even in the brains of the aging. Reading and writing, and many other activities, may also help keep brains youthful.

Based on prior knowledge, need or experience, people make instantaneous decisions every day. Sometimes, however a shoot-from-the-hip stance can be destructive. A more thoughtful or even formal approach may be in order, and this is where critical thinking comes into play.

If a person has a crucial decision ahead, they need to determine if they have enough information to reach a truly informed opinion on the matter. Where might they find the information they need? How critical is their decision to other people? Could their lack of information be harmful to others? Are there other sources or their own experience that might change their first or second opinion? Do they need the advice of an expert?

All options should be considered before a difficult decision is made.

In order for a valid decision to be reached there must also be some principles, standards or truths a person can firmly rely on to test the decision against. It does no good to reach a selfish or pragmatic decision that causes a person to go against those truths he or she may hold dear.
No one wishes to be foolish in their decisions.

The philosopher Soren Kirkegaard gave a standard of truth for all when he said: “THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO BE FOOLED. ONE IS TO BELIEVE WHAT IS NOT TRUE; THE OTHER IS TO REFUSE TO BELIEVE WHAT IS TRUE.”

Read that again, carefully. Can a person be fooled in any other way?

If the truth will make us free, then it is also true that we become slaves to the lies we believe. Believing what is NOT true is easy and lazy, it requires no critical or even lateral thinking at all. A person simply accepts ideas because someone else said or wrote them. If a man or woman believes what is not true, they are implicit in their own slavery.

Note that the second part of Kirkegaard’s proposition REQUIRES ACTIVE PARTICIPATION, a person must REFUSE to believe what IS true. It takes an act of will, a deliberate turning away from the search for truth, perhaps even a hatred of truth. Those who refuse to believe even when shown the truth, or refuse to tell the truth when they know it, are morally complicit in their own destruction.

Only critical and lateral thinking can give all mankind the necessary tools to walk the winding pathways of life with intelligence and joyful hearts. Keep learning, watch everything, look at differences, make connections in your wonderful brain, and always search for Truth.

May a few lines sung by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, lead your feet and mine:

For still there are so many things
That I have never seen;
In every wood, in every spring,
There is a different green.

MIND THE PENNIES

Economics, Education, Homespun philosophy, Politics, , , , , ,

. . . AND THE DOLLARS WILL TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES. Folk Saying

Do you still pick coins up off the ground? Do you have a savings jar of some sort? Do you remember a time when people were taught that thrift is a virtue? Do your children and grandchildren have piggy-banks and savings accounts?

Having asked these questions I admit the biggest question I hear whispering in my ear is: “What possible difference does it make anymore?” (Shades of Hillary Clinton!) As the putative president of the United States, and his wife, run around the world spending money not their own, one has to ask why any of the rest of us should even “save” a single cent again.

When hosts of citizens don’t understand how the tax system works, or doesn’t work; how they think “drastic cuts” to the rate of growth are actual cuts and don’t know that the government shut down was all contrived; why we need “zero based budgeting” and a Balanced Budget Amendment, even the hardiest souls might quake at how to teach so foreign a concept as “real” government savings. But let’s begin with what that quaint Constitution says on the matter:

Section 7: “ALL BILLS FOR RAISING REVENUE SHALL ORIGINATE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES . . .”

This means that the House of Representatives holds the purse strings and is charged with submitting a budget for each fiscal year, and there is a debt ceiling which is, supposedly, not to be exceeded. The budget proposed by the House is sent to the Senate where that body adds its demands for funding, then the budget goes before a joint conference committee for resolution. Both Houses vote on the finished product and once it is passed they forward it to the President for veto or signature. At least that’s how things are SUPPOSED to work.

In reality the budget forwarded by the House is loaded with pork barrel spending by the Senate and by both Houses during reconciliation. Thus the politicians can reward themselves and their cronies, and powerful voting blocs in each state get more funding for their pet projects. The longer members of Congress serve, the more powerful they become and the more pork they bring home, keeping their constituents happy and voting for them. So they keep playing the same old game, year after year.

Other methods of increased spending include raising the debt ceiling, supplemental spending resolutions and adding a desired unfunded program or project and cost as a rider on a completely unrelated bill. (Didn’t the Senate promise not to do that anymore? Have they kept their word?) Everyone turns a blind eye to such shenanigans, and yet again the taxpayers are looted.

The President usually also presents a budget, making clear where his priorities lie. This President’s budgets have been rejected every year since he took office. NO ONE IN EITHER PARTY HAS EVER VOTED FOR HIS BUDGETS. Under this President the game has changed and there is a method to his madness. He prefers to have no limits on his power and with the budget and the budget makers under his thumb, he manages to unconstitutionally keep spending. That means that every time we reach the debt ceiling another battle erupts. And the cowards in the House of Representatives never have the courage to close the purse.

The passing of the fiscal budget is a CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT, so both Houses appear to have evaded their duties. However, the House has regularly forwarded budgets to the Senate where ONE MAN, the odious Senate President, Harry Reid, pronounced them DOA. Did he then negotiate with the House or attempt to resolve the issue? Not Slimy Harry. He threw the budget someplace (a drawer, a garbage can? Who knows?).

Now that a budget deal of some sort has been brokered, Congress can pretend to follow it while everyone happily keeps spending, and the government faces a trillion dollar addition to the “debt ceiling” to allow even more spending. The supposed “cuts” of course are way down the road. As the old children’s song says, “The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round.”

And so, with no budgetary restraints, the Senate President and the President of the United States have proceeded to rape the Treasury and the citizens of this country, and each year increase their power exponentially. After all, what’s a few trillion between thieves? They now think they are so powerful there’s nothing that can be done to stop them and they can take whatever they want. You can always tell who the bad guys are. . . They are the ones who don’t care what happens to ANYONE but themselves and THEY DON’T CARE IF YOU KNOW IT.

Now we can go on to the next manufactured crises. Is it immigration reform or the minimum wage this week? Both plus Racism? War on Women? Or was that last week?

There are words, dishonorable, oath breakers, liars and sinners come to mind, for those who have no conscience. Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear have many times been shown President Barack Obama, Senator Harry Reid and the House leadership for who and what they truly are. Hypocrites, every darn one of them.

Once again we as a nation are faced with the cowardice and lies of the political class and almost everyone connected with it. Is it even possible to recognize any semblance of truth coming out of Washington, D. C. or from the fools who pass themselves off as the brightest amongst us?

Obviously impeachment should be seriously considered for the president and Reid. But no one will do it. The court eunuch Boehner needs to face his own devil – himself. He needs to be put out to pasture post haste. The man can’t even find his way to state the facts which support his case and hates anyone who can. He seems to have totally forgotten the most important job of the House of Representatives, that of saving the nation from insolvency, and he seems to have even forgotten his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.

John Boehner, you choose dishonor a whole lot and you have now failed everyone. None can trust you again to keep your oath for anything. Anyone who follows your lead is also guilty and should suffer the same fate.

What a shame it is that so few men stand on principle. And so this nation is led by fools and simpletons. Statesmen and oath keepers need not apply.
If political leaders were anything resembling honest, they would admit they have ceased minding any amount of money, whether on behalf of the country or that used for their own greed, power or comfort:

If Congress minded the thousands, would the millions take care of themselves?
If Congress minded the millions, would the billions take care of themselves?
If Congress minded the billions would the United States still be well over seventeen trillion dollars in debt?

Now here we are, another billion or trillion dollars more in debt each time the president wields his pen. Add Obamacare to this mix and try to guess the debt ceiling next time. After all, what’s a few trillion among thieves?

We would do well to remember that if the devil had fingers, his prints would be all over the world, and since the devil is always in the details, that is where his fingerprints are to be found. Unfortunately we know whose fingerprints help make the devilish details, but no political or moral fortitude exists to stop the carnage.

ONE LITTLE, TWO LITTLE, THREE LITTLE INDIANS

Education, Politics, Truth, Uncategorized, , , , ,

Harry Reid Feels Your Pain

Bonnie’s mother is Navaho (or Navajo, if you prefer). When she had to choose a tribe, Bonnie also chose to be Navaho, so when she had her second little Indian, a lovely girl with masses of black hair, she gave her the wonderful name Nizoni, pronounced ni-ZHON-ee, the Navaho word meaning Beautiful, and beautiful she is. Nizoni was born exactly one year and nine minutes after her older brother, Gavin, so they are real “Irish twins.” Or is that considered a racist term now? Their shared birthday parties are a juggling act, although as long as everything (including the chili) has chocolate in it, Nizoni is happy.

Bonnie’s father is one-half Hopi and a member of that tribe. At Gavin’s Hopi Hair Washing Ceremony, all his direct Hopi relatives (parents, aunts, uncles, etc.) washed his hair and gave him the Hopi name meaning Tadpole. Other members of the tribe are witnesses to the ceremony. At Nizoni’s Hair Washing, being a girl, she was named after the Kachina for cumulus clouds.

Bonnie’s father is also one-half Tewa. His father was the last full-blooded Tewa Indian in Bonnie’s family, and he was the first Indian Platoon leader in the US military. During the closing weeks of WWII, he and the members of his platoon parachuted behind enemy lines in the Phillipines and helped rescue a group of American POW’s who they knew were scheduled for execution by the Japanese within 24 hours. Bonnie’s grandfather was a great man and a great warrior.

When her third little Indian, Soren, was born, she gave him the middle name of Tewa, a lifetime remembrance of his heritage. He was named Little Corn at his Hopi Hair Washing. His mother thinks he’s pretty corny for sure when he’s hungry and yelling for food. He’s nine months old now and seriously considering walking. Since his eyes shine with mischief, Bonnie wonders how she’ll corral him when the time comes and if there’s any sleep in her future.

If you question Bonnie about her heritage she says she prefers to be called an Indian, with no hyphenated anything. That she is a patriotic American is a given. She wishes some Americans would just get over being so phony about their supposed sensitivities and if someone wants to call her a “Redskin”‘ hey, that’s fine with her. She’s proud to be an Indian and hopes the Redskins keep both their pride and their name.

Bonnie’s children belong to a mixed world, for you see she chose a (gasp!)
white guy for a husband. Alex’s roots in America go back only to the Mayflower, so he’s a newcomer to the land. Together Bonnie and her Alex are more concerned about the character, good behavior and toughness of their Three Little Indians than they are about any manufactured hurt feelings. They are, however, not above using Indian culture to make a point.

When Gavin started school this past autumn, he quietly folded his arms and bowed his head over his food at lunch. His teacher told him he was not allowed to do that. He was confused and upset when he told Bonnie and Alex about it because he had been taught at home to always bless his food. His parents very carefully considered their options and what they hoped to accomplish for their son. The next morning Bonnie went to the school and explained that in Hopi culture and tradition it is important to give thanks for the bounty of the earth. Caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, the school, to be politically correct, bowed to Hopi, not Christian, tradition.

Harry Reid’s evil remarks are both demeaning and insulting to both sides of Bonnie and Alex’s family. Please Harry, everyone’s heard enough from you, just go away.

We are the blessed ones as the Three Little Indians invade our home every day. They giggle as they pull their Papa’s suspenders and kiss the bald spot on his head. He saves himself by bribing them with anything chocolate and calls them his “War Whoops.” The dog loves them with slavish devotion and makes certain they are safe in the yard. They love the dog and tolerate me as they kiss me and call me gramma.

Harry, not a single one of us needs anything from you.

THE CARE AND FEEDING OF GENIUS

Education, intelligence, Truth, Uncategorized, , , ,

CAN WE REALLY KNOW WHAT GENIUS IS?

In the late 1970’s Popular Science ran an article about The Next Decades Up- and-Coming Young Scientists, or something of that nature. At the time I was busily engaged in the trenches rearing three small children. Our eldest son had scored very high on an IQ test (I almost want to say here that he was “diagnosed” with a high IQ), which was no surprise, but it did increase our insecurities about how best to meet his needs.

The author of the article in question interviewed several of the men and women scientists who had been recommended for the magazine’s honor. Some of the questions asked and the answers were very illuminating.

When asked when they knew they were “smart”, over half said they had no idea until they took the SAT and/or entered college. They thought of themselves as “just one of the guys” until they went away from home. There were very few who said their parents told them or any of their siblings they were smart or praised them for it. Some of the respondents still sounded shocked that they were considered smarter than average.

When asked what they considered their biggest advantages in growing up,  the answers were almost all along the lines of:

My parents made me do my homework, and they checked it.

I had responsibilities at home, but learning was a priority.

My mother took me to the library at least once a week to get as many new books as I was allowed to borrow, and made certain I both read the books and took care of them. My parents questioned me about them.

Both of my parents were interested in what I was doing and what I thought. We ate dinner together and discussed everything under the sun.

All of the respondents said their strengths started with their parents and being taught to work.

The article also quoted one top scientist as saying, “You can learn anything in the world if you have an IQ of 120, anything above that number is just so much gravy.”

I’m still not convinced that we know enough about intelligence to “test” for it. What is considered intelligence in one culture may be totally irrelevant in another. Is a Polynesian explorer steering his canoe by his knowledge of the ocean and heavens any less intelligent than a book taught scholar at Cambridge? Would some of our present day educators have enough knowledge to survive if dropped into a wilderness? What kind of IQ would survival take?

So, does IQ matter? I read once that after Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics, he and his wife visited his old high school where he asked to see his school records. Upon leaving he turned to his wife and said, “Winning the Nobel Prize didn’t seem like such a big deal, but now that I know my IQ it seems huge.”

I have watched the trap that parents of “smart” kids can fall into when they think that their child “has no peers”, as I heard one woman say. It’s an easy trap to be caught in. When our son skipped sixth grade and began Middle School he left his friends behind and felt lost without them. He came home one day and happily told me he had made a friend. Without thinking, I asked, “Is he smart?” My son, wiser than I, answered, “I don’t know, but he sure is nice.” I mended my ways.

Remember, we should be engaged in the business of rearing good people first, geniuses if we have to. Now that I have watched my children become adults and begin families of their own, I have learned a few lessons that, in the real world, seem important to me in growing those good people:

All children should be taught to work at a young age. They should also be given some moral and/or religious instruction.

All of your children, whether genius or not, will have different strengths and weaknesses. Other children are their peers.

All children will fail, and need to be told they failed. Their feelings will recover and their self respect will be strengthened when they master what they failed at.

Never be afraid to tell your children “NO”, and mean it.

Unless they are infants or ill, never clean up after your children. They need to clean up their own messes and mistakes.

All children should learn a skill or trade, but not all should go to college.

Your child may be a “late bloomer”, cut him or her some slack.

All children, no matter how “smart”, will have troubles and heartache. It’s called the human condition.

At some point, earlier than you might think, you lose the right to be your child’s boss. They’re on their own.

As long as your children know how to work and love God and learning, chances are, no matter what they do, they’ll be fine.

One more thing. If I were doing things all over again today, I would home school in a heart beat.

REVISITING THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

Biblical Wisdom, Education, Truth, , ,

WHY THE SABBATH AND FREEDOM INTERTWINE

In previous postings about the Sabbath Day observance required by the Fourth Commandment I had raised the question of why God would make this a matter of freedom for Israel, and I felt I needed to consider what keeping the sabbath holy might do to make us as individuals and as a nation worthy of that freedom.

As I posted before, there are three things God required of Israel in regards to the sabbath day. They are: (1) To keep the sabbath day holy; (2) for you and your family to do no work, nor are you to require anyone else, including strangers and slaves, or even animals, to do any work on the sabbath day; and (3) to remember that the Israelites had themselves been slaves and that God had made them free.

I did not understand the relationship between the sabbath and freedom, and yet The Lord told Jeremiah that if the Kingdom of Judah would again keep the sabbath holy Jerusalem would remain free and stand forever. Last week I caught a small glimpse of the link between sabbath worship and freedom and why our nation is losing liberty.

When people turn away from God and no longer follow His ways, they lose the knowledge that it is He who made man free: that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Unalienable, or inalienable, means an inherent, or inborn, right which cannot be taken away, nor should it be relinquished by the possessor. If people forget this meaning it becomes easier for unscrupulous men and women to foster the thinking that it is the Government that GRANTS freedom. One way to understand the nature of freedom is to REMEMBER that we have all been in some form of slavery. We have not all been in physical slavery, but we are all slaves to the lies we believe.

Where do we learn the TRUTH that makes us free if we no longer give time to God and His Word? How do we even know what freedom and liberty are if we have no contact with truth? Keeping the sabbath holy was enjoined on the people of the bible to keep them REMEMBERING God by REMEMBERING that only HE can teach us Truth and guarantee freedom.

Learning about the truth of God and the purpose of our lives requires us to consider HIM in all our doings. The sabbath day requirement to REMEMBER WE WERE SLAVES directs us to the ways of The Lord

He does not want slaves, He wants men who freely turn in love to Him, with broken hearts and contrite spirits. When men humble themselves before God and put Him first they become more able to resist relying on the arm of flesh and to begin acting on God’s Commandments which were given to insure freedom and safety for all. That is the only way to have a civilized society and a nation worth saving.

Is sabbath day worship the most important thing we can do for the freedom of the United States of America? How many of us will it take for God to honor our effort? Are YOU willing to follow this commandment?
I, for one, am convinced that this understanding of the nature of freedom and the sabbath is a small but important step in the right direction.

THE HAREM

Biblical Wisdom, Education, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Why can’t Tommy come over to play?

When our eldest son had just turned five and his sister was almost four, we moved to a new home in a semi-rural area. There seemed to be no young children in the neighborhood, but right across the street from us lived two brothers of about ten and twelve. They lived in absolutely appalling squalor and had parents who ignored their basic needs. The oldest boy, Tommy, struck up a friendship with our children and played with them in our front yard where we could watch them. In spite of his home circumstances Tommy seemed like a nice boy and one of us was always around so we relaxed thinking all was well.

One day Bear went downstairs and found Tommy had sneaked our daughter into the house and into her bedroom, closed the door and was kissing her and removing her clothes. Bear marched Tommy out the front door and told him to never come to our home nor touch our kids again. Going to his parents would have been absolutely futile, the State Children’s Services already had a bad name, and we were reluctant to start a neighborhood feud. Our daughter and son were told Tommy could not come over anymore, and Bear talked privately to our daughter, asking why she didn’t stop Tommy from what he was doing and cry out for help. “Well,” she said, “you kiss mom all the time so I thought it was OK.” Yikes! Bear let her know that what Tommy had done was not OK and told her what she should do if the circumstances ever arose again.

A couple of days went by and our son came and asked why Tommy was not allowed to play anymore. As much as I could I filled him in on what Tommy had done and said we couldn’t trust him now. Our son went off for awhile, then came and asked if Tommy could come over again if he apologized to Bear. I sent him to his dad to find out. Not wanting to discourage good behavior on Tommy’s part, Bear said he would consider it. Our son talked to Tommy and he did come and apologize. Bear thanked him for his apology and told him he would think the matter over, but both he and I had absolutely no intention of letting Tommy be around. We hoped to let the matter drop there.

A few more days passed and our son approached me again. This time he said he had come up with a solution to the problem. He had a really bright idea alright: “Whenever Tommy comes over we’ll just lock Sissy in the closet until he goes home.” The sheer audacity of my son, the male, chauvinist pig in training, was overwhelming to me. What kind of a kid was I rearing here anyway? I kept my cool, stood there for a moment and finally asked if he really thought his sister should be locked up. He sighed and said, “I guess not,” and left.

That evening I told Bear about our son’s “solution.” We both had to laugh at his ingenuity. Then I put my mind to his obvious need for proper training. The next day I looked at our son and realized he was just five years old, barely out of infancy. He had needed friends to play with, and Tommy had filled some of that need. He had no concept of what constituted improper behavior on the part of a much older boy. He was not a beast, he was a lonely little boy who needed to learn more about the problems of the larger world. We began discussing some ideas with our children much earlier than we had thought we needed to, and began doing more as a family to try and find other children for ours to be around.

Later I gave serious consideration to my son’s idea of locking his sister in the closet. I wondered if that same thought hadn’t been a societal and cultural solution to the matter of protecting women in a barbaric society. You know, “The boys are coming from the Mountain Tribe, hide the women.” So the women were placed in protective custody away from the men. Perhaps the women finally rebelled at being stuck off alone in a room away from their accustomed quarters, so the family built a larger secure space for them. A Harem for the women. Then what had started out with good intentions became first a tradition and then a prison as the years passed.

I began to consider many cultural things we in the west find degrading to women, such as veiling and chadors. Perhaps wearing such coverings also started with good intentions. Think about living where sand gets blown about into eyes, noses and mouths. Even the hair gets filthy. Wear at least a head covering or robe that can be quickly pulled over the head and face in a sandstorm and you solve a real problem. As the years pass the wearing of head coverings of different kinds becomes another rigid rule.

What about the women who are forced to walk three steps behind their men? Is it possible that custom also started as a protection for women in nomadic societies? The men walked in front with spears and clubs to protect the important but physically weaker women and children. Soon what started out as a protective measure became a rule and then a law. Women MUST walk three steps behind their masters.

Over time did these and other customs cause men to degrade women in their own minds and consider them as evil chattel? It would be a short step for some men to blame women for their own problems, even if you leave Mother Eve out of the equation. What about our own thinking today when boys and men are treated disrespectfully and their very nature as men is questioned? We drug boys and deny they are different than girls. Do we have customs that serve no good purpose? Probably. And conversely, in our hubris have we destroyed societal norms that were a protection to us all? If you look at the moral squalor around us you’d have to say yes.

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you more of Tommy. We watched as he and his brother became more and more untamed. The family finally moved some years after the happenings I’ve described. Then one day the news covered a story of two adult men who held a party where teenagers were supplied liberally with drugs and alcohol. Three of those strung out teens stole a car, drove on the wrong side of the highway out of town and hit a State Trooper head on. After the trooper’s death the two adults were charged with Involuntary Manslaughter and Contributing to the Delinquency of Minors. One of those men who held the party was Tommy. I watched his first court appearance on TV. The other man involved in the party was busy laughing, acting tough, and giving the finger to everyone. And Tommy? Well, I have never seen a more broken person than Tommy. His whole skinny little body was quaking, he was crying and groaning as he wrapped his arms protectively around himself, rocking back and forth. He never raised his eyes as the tears ran down his face. He looked as though he had stepped from a torture chamber in Dante’s Third Circle.

As I watched I saw the young him and the things I knew about his life. I felt so guilty and wondered what I might have done to help him. Maybe once in awhile I could have brought him over for cookies and milk at a clean kitchen table and that would have given him hope. Some small sign of caring might have been enough, but in reality I still don’t know what we could or should have done.

The broken man he became haunts me as much as the young boy he was.

HARVARD HUBRIS

Education, Politics, Truth, ,

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO’S THE SMARTEST ONE OF ALL?

Sandra Korn, a student at Harvard and a columnist for the HARVARD CRIMSON, has raised eyebrows over her assertion that adherence to liberalism trumps academic freedom, and Harvard should lock out those who do not agree with her. I suppose she’s getting her fifteen minutes in the limelight, but let’s look at what she has to believe in order to make such a proposition:

That Sandra Korn is the smartest woman in the world, or at least at  Harvard (which, in her mind, may be the same thing.)
That she knows everything, so no other ideas are needed.
That anyone who thinks other than she is at least her inferior, if not downright stupid, and probably evil.
That free thought and free speech should not be tolerated in academia, so Harvard must bar its doors against such folk. (I thought they already had, so this point may be moot.)
That she has the right to determine what other people think and say.

In another context I had quoted Soren Kirkegaard as follows: THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO BE FOOLED. ONE IS TO BELIEVE WHAT IS NOT TRUE; THE OTHER IS TO REFUSE TO BELIEVE WHAT IS TRUE.

Sandra seems to have put herself on the horns of a dilemma here. What she says and why she apparently believes she has the right to say it are completely illogical and profound foolishness for the following reasons:

Sandra has not told us her IQ, but it is possible that smarter people than she exist, some may even attend Harvard, or no university at all.
It is impossible that she knows everything and has no need of other ideas. What a closed mind that would be.
Very intelligent people, some way smarter than she, may very well disagree with her.
Free thought and free speech are the very essence of TRUTH and LEARNING.
What other people think and say are, frankly, none of her business. If she chooses to engage them in debate then she is obliged to remain civil.

What she says, and apparently believes, is not true and meets Kirkegaard’s first test of foolishness. Her REFUSAL to believe that free ideas and free speech are vital to academic freedom meets his second test of foolishness,

Sandra appears to be a foolish person on all counts and the horns of her dilemma are very sharp, they might even break her ego mirror on the wall.