There is no such thing as correct by Zac

There is no such thing as correct by Zac - September 2021 Scholarship Essay

“There is no such thing as correct—what is wrong or right? Whoever makes the better argument is always right.” These were the words of my middle school history teacher, and I was having absolutely none of them. I simply needed to know if some fact about Incan society supported my thesis. Rather than the history of the Incas though, I received a crash course in relativism.

At that time the notion that both nothing and everything was true was simply overwhelming to me. I felt paralyzed: if nothing was right how could I ever know if I was right. I wrote and rewrote that paper what felt like thousands of times, but I was never satisfied with how it turned out. The due date came around and I submitted what I had. Three days later I received the paper back with the words “good work” hastily written across the top. There was no grade.

Rather than feeling cheated, though, I felt freed. The whole time I was stuck not because of a lack of knowledge or ability; I was afraid to fail. It was truly fitting that a man who said “There is no right or wrong” did not give a grade—the ultimate measure of right or wrong in academics.
opened my eyes to the beauty of Social Studies: not that nothing is right but that anything can be right if one can defend it well.

The openness and intellectual exploration that is allowed by Social Studies is invaluable. Beyond simply teaching a student how to do like a STEM class, Social Studies teaches students how to think.
I couldn’t tell you what the question I asked about the Incas was, in fact, I would be hard-pressed to tell you much about them at all. What I can tell you is that as a result of that middle school history class and many other Social Studies classes after I learned how to write, how to speak, and formulate a position. There is a reason that these skills are applicable in every academic environment, and indeed in life as a whole. Social Studies is fundamentally the study of people and it teaches fundamentally human things. I could think of no better domain of study to prepare someone for school and life.