One at a time, please

Dan Verner
Published: September 22, 2008

The conventions are over, the candidates have been chosen, the campaigning has intensified, and we have about two months to go after one of the longest campaigns for president in our history. In the
next 60 days we will be subjected to sound bites, political ads, analyses, debates, forums and appeals to our common sense, emotions and intellect. Amid all this information, we will have to make an
important choice.

It seems to be that as I observe a great deal of public discourse in the media and elsewhere, that we have gotten accustomed to talking over each other.  Even on the morning infotainment “news” shows
the principals frequently all talk at once, resulting in a babble of sound that is baffling and impossible to understand. If this is the best we can do for public dialogue on any subject, including political
topics, we are in sad shape.

I became aware of this tendency while I was still teaching English. Every class is different: some are lethargic and non-involved; some are enthusiastic and committed to study. Occasionally, I had a
class that wanted to run the show. One in particular I remember had other ideas about how we were going to study any given unit. If I wanted them to participate in discussion groups, they wanted to have
a quiz show on the material. If I had oral presentations planned, they wanted to do posters and explain them. Sometimes I went along with their ideas, thinking there was more than one way to approach a
subject; other times I told them they could use whatever approach they wanted when they had their own English class.  For now, this was my class and we would do what I thought best.  At least they
were engaged and interested in learning.

Starting early in the year they seemed fixated on having a debate. I couldn’t quite understand this since there is not a lot to debate in Early American literature. I was also puzzled that they wanted to use
such a demanding and complex form. “Why do you want to have a debate?” I asked. “Because debates are cool,” they answered.

After a few times of their asking for a debate it began to dawn on me that what they and I had very different ideas of what a debate was. I asked them for an example of what they meant by a debate. “You
know,” they said, “Like on The Jerry Springer Show.” I wasn’t familiar with this bit of broadcast media so I promised to watch an episode.

Well, I was appalled. I have never seen such a collection of dysfunction coupled with exhibitionist urges in my life. And not only was there shouting over each other, there were threats and fights. If this
was what my students thought of as debating, they had been sorely misinformed somewhere along the line. I told them that while there had been riots in French theaters about plays which violated the
classical unities in the 19th century, I couldn’t see shouting matches and fistfights over Emily Dickinson’s poetry, but that if they worked hard, we would have a real debate if we had time at the end of the
year.

So, they continued suggesting ways to learn, some good, some off the wall, and we came to a point about three weeks before the end of the year where we needed something to wrap up our study of the
literature. I told them we would end with a debate. I divided them into teams, and we spent a week going over ideas in American literature, looking for topics that would lend themselves to debate.

They caught on to the concept with propositions like “The literature of an era reflects the important ideas of that era,” and “The correlation between an author’s work and life is clear.” Then it was off to the
library to research their topics for a week and to prepare their arguments.  I went over a simplified form for debate and by the last week of school, they were ready to present. They did a magnificent job. 
They had well-reasoned, well-researched arguments and listened, rebutted and summarized like champions. I felt as if they had learned a great deal and had shown it. At the end of the time I asked, “So
how did you like debating?”

“It’s a lot of work,” they answered, “But we learned a lot.”

And so they had. As we move into this intense phase of the political season, I hope that we and everyone involved will take the time and have the patience to listen to each other, to consider issues, to
find the truth and to make the best choice we can for those who will lead us for the next several years. And I hope we can learn not to talk over each other and to have a reasonable dialogue, one at a
time, please.

Dan Verner is a longtime Manassas resident. He contributes to these pages every week.