Democratic discussions are significantly important in the classroom, but hardly ever are they the ideal situation described in the article. The only times I have experienced a classroom discussion that made me feel like I was whitewater rafting was my senior year of high school when we had a class debate on abortion- and the adrenaline wasn't from excitement so much as fear and anxiety. However, that being said, I think that these kinds of fear and anxiety-inducing discussions are important (especially for students like myself, who experience social anxiety that renders open discussions difficult to participate in). It is vital for students to feel this sort of tension in a discussion or debate. I believe this connects students to the world in a real way. A discussion will never be perfectly diplomatic and PC and exciting for all involved. There is always some kind of stake- whether it be emotional or based on values, experience, etc.- for those interested and invested. However, it is these stakes that create the opinions and new views that we open ourselves to in classroom talks.
The article addresses the four purposes of discussion and it occurred to me that I had never had any experience really learning how to have a meaningful discussion in a classroom until college, and it's something I felt lacked in high school. High school should have prepared me but what it did was teach me that the best and only way to have a discussion was if it was being facilitated by hovering adults and a carefully written selection of questions and prompts meant to facilitate "appropriate" and "fair" dialogue. Which means to me now that the school was aiming to be PC and nothing else. These purposes boil down to being open-minded, fair, and staying informed and unbiased when justifying opinions.
No comments:
Post a Comment