This week, we've turned our Perspectives segment over to Breja Fink's A.P. Language and Composition class at Beloit Memorial High School.
In life you find that not everyone thinks and sees things the same way as you. This is alright and was the principle that America's political system was founded on. The sharing of ideas to create a greater whole: It seems in recent times we as a people have forgotten this. Debates have drifted away from the need to understand to the need to be right.
This is reflected in America today where we see the rate of radicalization rising ever so quickly as the moderate class of America shrinks. Stephen R. Covey, an American educator, author, and keynote speaker, explained, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” People are so worried about winning a debate that they have forgotten what it means to win a debate. The winner is the person who walked away having learned the most.
I commonly hear “I hate debates, because I hate arguing.” That is well and fine if you hate carefully constructing support for your beliefs. A debate should not be a screaming match where you try to force someone to agree with you. People need to take a step back and remember Shakespeare’s wise words from Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” No one's beliefs are perfect, and that's why we have to talk about them.
I’m Rees Graves, and that's my perspective.
