As another academic year is drawing to a close, we have the opportunity to reflect on the past nine months and how we have changed.

We can all individually look back on this past year and think about what we have learned, our expectations of life at Norwich, and how we feel about the issues that have affected our community. Many of us fall into the trap of simply regurgitating the opinions of others. We do this by finding one source that we like the most, and take that side. This is a lazy way to form an opinion, and a dangerous one.

This method of forming an opinion is dangerous because it makes one complacent, and becomes exclusive of free thought and dissenting opinion. This way of thinking encourages a group mentality that excludes those who were not party to the initial interaction. These sources included in the decision making become cadre, rook buddies, friends, classmates, professors, administrators, colleagues, or even our families and parents. Those excluded are labeled as "incorrect," or "wrong."

In forming our own "identity" on many topics at Norwich, we often fail to keep an open mind. All too often, we have already decided which side we'll take on an issue before we even hear a full story. This applies to everything, from larger scale issues such as politics to things like campus issues that will seem small and distant as we drive south on I-89 in a few short days.

We take what our professors or friends say and accept it as our own opinion, without thinking critically about different issues. What we need to do is get out of our habits of just going along with what our regular "groups" say, and start trying harder to formulate our own point of view on things.

This is what education is all about: exercising your mind, not just regurgitating opinions. When considering our feelings on any issue, each member of the Norwich community should take into consideration the values in our own mission statement:

To give our youth an education that shall be American in its character - to enable them to act as well as to think - to execute as well as to conceive - "to tolerate all opinions when reason is left free to combat them" - to make moral, patriotic, efficient, and useful citizens, and to qualify them for all those high responsibilities resting upon a citizen of this free republic.

We often hear President Schneider quote the Norwich Catalogue of 1844 at campus events. We hear those words, which are emblazoned on the mezzanine in our library, and sometimes it seems as if they go in one ear and out the other.

When we talk about freedom, what makes someone free is thinking for himself or herself. We can't neglect this obligation at Norwich, because it is something that we're going to have to do well after we graduate if we're going to want to keep making progressive changes in society and in our personal lives.

Let's not throw away our educational opportunity by failing to truly make our minds stronger.

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