Hannah Li
This editorial represents the opinion of 12 out of 14 Outlook editors.
As post-election discussion circulates — both around Aragon and the country as a whole — it is clear that now, more than ever, students need to be given the skills and resources to engage in effective political discussion, to succeed in a nation ridden with polarization.
Nationally, there has been a breakdown of mutual respect that can partially be attributed to overreactions to opinions other than one’s own. Fear of such retaliation pushes many into self-censorship, in turn impeding what could be meaningful discussion. This trend can be seen within Aragon as well; more and more students hesitate to go on the record for the Outlook, even if their opinions are innocuous.
In addressing these issues, it is crucial to promote civil discourse — an essential aspect of our democratic process — within our classroom settings, to ensure that students feel comfortable sharing their own views and can respond respectfully to others.
We believe teachers have already done a phenomenal job creating a discussion-oriented curriculum that enhances the learning experiences of students by encouraging collaboration. However, to make the most of these discussions, there must be a greater emphasis on how to thoughtfully disagree with others.
Disagreements can seem messy and scary and difficult, but they don’t have to be, and in fact, they shouldn’t be. We acknowledge that it requires a certain level of vulnerability to put one’s opinion out there, especially with the very real risk of retaliation, but this cannot be a deterrent.
This is exactly why it’s so critical to address the concepts of dissent when we have the opportunity to. When we have at our disposal these classes of students, still young enough to be receptive, we must use that to our advantage — this is the time to straighten out those messes before students are inevitably confronted with controversy down the line. So when these disputes do break out, as is the nature of our deeply polarized nation, they must be equipped with the skills to succeed in those conversations.
To begin, open discussion begins with creating an environment where students feel rewarded for their attention and input. This starts by ensuring that students embrace an open mindset over sticking to their own beliefs, be active listeners and ground arguments in fact rather than subjective beliefs/generalizations. To promote active listening, it may be helpful to have students briefly paraphrase what their peers are saying before responding. Some teachers may already utilize this technique, but we believe it should be extended to all social science classes. This would ensure that everyone’s voices are heard and understood, allowing for more thoughtful responses.
Now, as for activities to be implemented within the curriculum, the Outlook proposes three methods that can be used in tandem with each other or selected independently under the teacher’s discretion.
First, students can be assigned to reenact certain historical figures and defend their stances accordingly. This would not only improve content absorption and class engagement, but also provide students with the chance to dispute ideas, without fear of expressing controversy.
Second, there should be more overt debate. While existing techniques like Socratic seminars are helpful, students’ voices can blend into each other within the first few minutes, rendering further discussion circular. It is crucial to prevent students from mindlessly agreeing with each other and entrapping themselves in a bubble of only their own opinion, without being exposed to differing viewpoints.
Adding a mixture of debates would be highly beneficial, where students would be assigned sides to ensure that their arguments remain clear. Even if they are assigned a side they may not necessarily agree with, it is beneficial to put themselves in the opposing point of view and fully immerse themselves in the content of what they’re arguing for.
These would also be completed in smaller groups of four, beginning with speeches from both sides, that would serve as a launchpad for further discussion. Learning how to disagree will also allow Socratic seminars to be fully effective as a thorough discussion where students pose and interact with contrasting opinions.
Third, an activity in which students specifically gather to discuss with people who have different personal opinions would further promote the spread of ideas and information. Students would respond to a prompt with an agree or disagree — these responses should be collected anonymously, to avoid voter influence — then be placed in a group of five to six with two to three representatives from each side.
Most students do have an initial subconscious bias, whether or not they admit it, and may continue to cling onto those preconceived notions when their arguments/beliefs are not directly addressed. This activity would again, give them the chance to hear more diverse perspectives, respectfully challenge other people’s ideas and thus understand the full scope of nuanced topics.
Although many issues and prompts go beyond a simple black-and-white divide, the purpose of these activities is not to promote one specific viewpoint, but rather to provide students with the opportunities to interact with the main arguments from both sides, so that they are able to come to their own conclusion by the end — which may be that they stand somewhere in between.
At the end of all these activities, students should be asked to reflect upon the lesson — what new information they’ve learned, if their opinion has shifted, and what caused that opinion shift, if at all. This allows them to review the variety of arguments made in the discussion, while also fortifying or reforming their own evidence-backed opinion.
We realize the limited scope of power that school holds, but constant exposure to such discussions ensures that, at the very least, students will have had adequate practice.
Although we have curricular solutions, the overarching problem with civil discourse goes beyond school curriculum, and addressing it through interactive discussion-based activities is one method out of many to encourage students to partake in civic engagement. Ultimately, though, teaching students to rationally disagree with one another will allow for better conversations and expand capacity for empathy in our increasingly polarized world.
