Accurate Understanding
and Respectful Attitudes
Students in my high school learned
valuable lessons about understanding and attitudes from one of our favorite
teachers. He was skilled in explaining ideas (using direct instruction), and he also held debates in his civics class. On Monday he would convince
us that "his side of the issue" was correct, but on Tuesday he
made the other side look just as good. After awhile we learned that,
in order to get accurate understanding, we
should get the best information and arguments that all sides of an issue
can claim as support. After we did this and we understood more accurately
and thoroughly, we usually recognized that even when we have valid reasons
for preferring one position, people on other sides of an issue may also
have good reasons, both intellectual and ethical, for believing as they do, so we learned
respectful attitudes.
But respect does not require
agreement. You can respect someone and their views, yet criticize
their views, which you have evaluated based on evidence,
logic, and values. The
intention of our teacher, and the conclusion of his students, was
not a postmodern
relativism. The goal was a rational exploration and evaluation of ideas
in a search for truth, and for practical principles that (when combined with good values) are a useful foundation for thinking that leads to wise-and-effective strategies, policies, decisions, and actions.
In our schools, we can encourage accurate understanding and respectful attitudes by avoiding "Monday
without Tuesday (and Wednesday,...)" indoctrination, by accurately and respectfully describing
the main views on each topic. Each description may not be perceived by everyone as being NEUTRAL, due to both
perception (because many people
prefer
a treatment that is biased in favor of their own views, and they consider
a treatment to be neutral only if it is biased in this way)
and reality (because it is impossible to describe any view in a way
that
is totally
neutral). But teachers
can try to be FAIR by aiming for accurate descriptions, treating different perspectives with respect, and
by providing access to high-quality resources where opposing advocates
clearly
express
their own views and criticize other views.
Teachers who do this can help make the process of agreeing-and-disagreeing
more enjoyable and productive. They can use productive
communication — in
an effort to achieve understanding and mutual respect — in
a search for knowledge that is true and useful.
This page — written by Craig Rusbult, Ph.D. — is http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/teach/uar.htm