When I was first reading and making judgement as I went along, I came across the line, "All participants in a democratic discussion have the opportunity to voice a strongly felt view and the obligation to devote every ounce of their attention to each speaker's words." I was thinking that I know people during re-elections know the democratic or republican stance so well, but they know nothing about the other side or what they do know is false. They haven't taken the time to listen what the other has to say but only hear their own voice. How can I expect young students to follow this "democratic society?" But as I kept reading I found out that they author knows the complications involved in this, and that he or she knows that listening is much more complicated than speaking. At the end of the end of the article he addresses some of the problems with discussion in the classroom.
To have a successful discussion everyone needs to attentively listen to others first. The act of speaking isn't valued as much as the listening. One of the most important things I got from this was that doing these discussions will not only help a person learn the other side of an opinion but will help the listener to evaluate their own opinion. It is so likely that a young person has an opinion because that is what they know or what they have been taught, but once they take time to think outside their own thoughts and listen to someone else's opinion they can reaffirm what they thought or develop a new opinion. To me it is important to have young people thinking and developing their own opinion. It is a struggle to get people to think outside what they know but is so beneficial to all parts of our life.
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