Teaching Controversial Topics
The Well-Trained Mind podcast
Modeling Constructive Disagreement in Education
This chapter highlights the importance of teaching students to engage in fair disagreement, steering away from personal attacks. It emphasizes the principles of classical rhetoric and the necessity of accurately representing opposing views to foster respectful and constructive exchanges.
Guiding Principles:
Gretchen Ronnevik Quote We LOVE:
“When I taught classical writing to teens, there's an element to formal rhetoric called "refutation" where you address the arguments opposed to your thesis. In refutation, it's important to present the arguments of your opponents in a way that they would feel well represented, so that you can talk about where they are wrong in their argument, point by point, instead of resorting to ad hominem attacks, or misrepresentation. In classical rhetoric, ad hominem attacks, and twisting the words of your opponent where they would say "but that's not what I said, nor how I meant it," is actually the weakest way to refute their arguments. It shows that you don't have a good case against their issue, so you resort to theatrics and distractions instead. The reason that you want your opponents to agree with your representation of them is that you are seeking to win them over and persuade them. If they feel they have been misrepresented, they will never be persuaded, they will just continue to clarify again and again, until they realize you have no intention of actually hearing them.”
Politics
- iCivics: Susanna’s recommendation for teaching civics and government to grammar/rhetoric stage students
- The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt: Susanna’s book recommendation for rhetoric students and adults
Economics
- Uncle Eric Books: We mention using these books to explain the Libertarian or Free Market view of economics
- Tuttle Twins: We mention this as an example of an economics/government program for kids that has a stated Libertarian slant
- Older students should read the strongest arguments for each major economic theory and/or the source material, like The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith for Free Market Economics or The General Theory of Employment by John Maynard Keynes for Keynesian economics.
- Resources for looking for rhetoric stage economics courses (let us know your comments about potential slants!):
- Great Courses (a lot of course options, check the syllabus to see if the course you’re interested in covers multiple economic theories)
- Edx (same as above)
- Khan Academy (they have a section about Keynesian economics and its critics)
- Crash Course (supplemental videos, potential Keynesian slant. They have a video about different Economics Schools of Thought)
- Well-Trained Mind Academy
Science
- Biologos website: Susan mentions this website in the context of teaching theology and science.
- Extremely American Podcast: Susan mentions this podcast when positing that there is a link between creationism and Christian Nationalist political ideas. This episode specifically tackles that link.
Corrections:
- At 31:10 Susan mentions the "Institution of Creationism Research," it should be "Institute of Creation Research."
- (00:00) - Season of Hot Takes Intro
- (01:15) - Episode Intro
- (01:28) - Teaching controversial topics
- (03:31) - "I Don't Believe It, But I Must Teach It"
- (04:31) - US Government & Politics | I Don't Believe It, But I Must Teach It
- (07:21) - How to make space for terrifying questions
- (13:50) - US Government & Politics | I Don't Believe It, But I Must Teach It
- (22:25) - Economics | I Don't Believe It, But I Must Teach It
- (30:26) - Break
- (31:31) - Science | I Don't Believe It, But I Must Teach It
- (40:32) - Reading | I Don't Believe It, But I Must Teach It
- (45:48) - How to teach in a community with diverse values
- (52:46) - Outro
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