To the Editor:
Perhaps nothing illustrates more clearly the extent to which “education” can become indoctrination than the knee-jerk reaction of instructors and students to the use of the Wikipedia as a source of information. Students have been taught and have learned to parrot back the lesson: “Wikipedia information is not trustworthy. ... Wikipedia is not appropriate for college-level courses.”
How do the students know that the Wikipedia is a bad source of information? Have they read articles in it and evaluated them for accuracy, bias, comprehensiveness, etc.? No. Of all of the many students I have had tell me that the Wikipedia is a substandard source of information, none have done a critical study of an article, nor has any student ever told me of a critical study showing the deficiencies of the Wikipedia.
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