Bridging the Great Divide through Good Communication and Rhetoric

Dear Mrs. Betsy DeVos, 

As you work to do your best to better our public school systems, there is an important aspect to secondary education that has become a seemingly ignored or overlooked aspect of our English subject: the importance of rhetoric and more specifically rhetoric in public discourse. 

The Issue

Public discourse is defined as being engagement in conversation intended to enhance understanding. Though as the media, Facebook, Twitter and numerous other platforms have made it very apparent, those public sphere’s have become places of conflict rather than of understanding. In an interview with CNN, former Colorado Governor, John Hickenlooper, touches on this when he states, “‘We are in a crisis. It is a national crisis of division, and we probably have never been this divided since the Civil War," he said, adding that people "fight over everything" and always "blame somebody or fight against somebody else’” (CNN). 

The Solution

Thus bringing the question of what is the underlying cause for this polarizing divide within our country today? The answer: our lack of understanding first: how to have a crucial conversation and second: of rhetoric. It is very hard to change a person set in their ways, but it is not hard to help future generations avoid making the same mistakes as those before us. Allowing them to hopefully become the cure to this divide through teaching them the tools necessary to understand how to communicate. 

Importance of Teaching Good Communication

During the Renaissance, Cicero, Castiglione, and Isocrates all taught the importance of virtue and understanding the art of communication. As one of the aspects of communication that all these philosophers agreed on was the importance of sprezzatura and having an understanding or multiple different things, but also being humble enough to recognize when ones knowledge is lacking and willing to listen to others who might be able to fill those holes. 

In Crucial Conversations, a book that has helped me to better understand the importance of rhetoric and communication, there is an emphasis on the attitude of being willing to explore others paths and genuinely wanting to understand another’s point of view. This is vital to having public spheres that once again resemble those of the Enlightenment period as being, “An ideal of good and accountable governance. Its requisites are free flows of information, free expression, and free debate. The ideal public sphere is truly participatory and the best protection against abuse of power” (The Public Sphere).

Teaching high schoolers the importance of communication and the different tools and avenues to having crucial conversations will better prepare them to listen to other peoples opinions and points of view. It will not only improve their listening skills, but their relationships with their peers, friends and family.

The Importance of Rhetoric 

If good communication were taught within secondary education, with an emphasis on rhetoric, within their english or literature classes, these generations will be more capable of recognizing the fallacies that one confronts everyday. Having a deeper knowledge of the variety of fallacies, such as ad hominem or bandwagoning or red herring, the future parents, voters, and leaders will be adept at avoiding the Hitlers and Stalins of tomorrow. 

They will be able to recognize when others are attempting to manipulate them or deceive them with false personas. They will be able to fight against the fallacy of opposition or dogmatic arguments because they will be better equipped to recognize and escape their own echo chambers and rabbit holes of this digital age. Allowing for students to recognize these fallacies they create within their own thinking allows them to do as Joseph Pratt and “understand both sides or the issue, get outside my comfort zone, and grow as an individual” (slack).  

Conclusion

In conclusion, teaching the importance of teaching how to communicate with an emphasis on rhetoric will allow for future generations to right the wrongs of the polarization that is an epidemic sweeping over the American nation. For as I have come to apply these tools and techniques that I have learned regarding rhetoric and communication, I have seen a difference in my relationships and a wish to have learned them sooner. 


Citations

Krupas, Viktoria."People Yelling at Each Other". Shutterstock, Shutterstock, Inc. 2003-2019. 

Merica, Dan. “Hickenlooper Knocks DC Politicians: They Just Spend Their Time 'Pointing          Fingers'.” CNN Politics, 8 Mar. 2019.

    Patterson, Kerry, et al. Crucial Conversations. McGraw-Hill, 2012.

The Public Sphere. The World Bank Group, 2005.

Schultz, Charles. "Peanuts".1955.

Schultz, Charles. "Peanuts".1957.