What is education for? An expert answers

Highly commendable: a university of science and technology like the UPC has awarded an honoris causa doctorate to a philosophy professor, Dr. Joan Manuel del Pozo, from the University of Girona, a person who has dedicated his entire life to education.

Now that our educational system has alarms blaring, what did the expert focus on? "Lack of linguistic clarity leads to confusion or at least vital and social disorientation. I have a firm conviction that if we worked on our linguistic and interpretive capacity, we would defuse most of the problems that overwhelm us, in all spheres of human relationships: amorous, friendly, neighborly, educational, professional, even democratic relationships."

In other words, if we could only ask for one benefit from school, it would be this: that students leave understanding what they read and making what they write understandable. "Here, then, is all that we risk in the degradation of language: the risk of increasing the confusion that fuels any totalitarianism."

Del Pozo asked himself whether artificial intelligence serves human dignity, democracy, or education, or puts them at risk with the dissemination of mental frameworks contrary to human rights and with the cognitive atrophy of students. If the answer is that there are violations and risks, "we are morally and democratically committed to confronting them ethically and legally."

Having a clear mind must be the main objective. Because, as Del Pozo concluded, "the more the presence of artificial intelligence applications grows, the more we must grow the skills of our natural intelligence: with critical thinking, with ethical training and political commitment to democracy and human rights." A whole guide to get out of the impasse.