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Not in My Backyard

Brian Balogh | University of Virginia

Persuasion, the act of influencing or trying to influence others by appealing to their beliefs, values, and emotions, was long the focus of rhetorical art; and skill in persuasion, the goal of rhetorical education. David Fleming discusses how persuasion gradually lost its place in both rhetorical theory and pedagogy.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 1, 2024

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This video video reflects on the changing landscape of political communication and education in the United States, particularly after the 2016 presidential election. The speaker discusses the shock many academics felt regarding the election outcome, which highlighted a perceived collapse in the foundations of public discourse and the ability to engage across political divides.

The speaker critiques modern philosophical attempts to separate rhetoric from discourse, arguing that this has contributed to a sense of alienation in public decision-making. Instead of merely relying on facts and logical argumentation, the speaker advocates for a renewed appreciation of persuasion, emphasizing that emotions and personal connections are integral to effective communication.

This video video also highlights the decline of public speaking and debate in American education, attributing some of this to the rise of standardized testing and the Common Core curriculum, which emphasizes logical argumentation at the expense of persuasive discourse. The speaker points out troubling binaries emerging in educational settings that view persuasion as separate from argumentation, which undermines the teaching of effective communication skills.

Overall, the speaker calls for a more holistic understanding of rhetoric that incorporates emotion, personal investment, and the complexities of human reasoning to foster more integrative and effective political discourse.

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Here are some similar articles that explore themes of political communication, education, and the role of rhetoric in public discourse:

1. **"The State of Political Communication Post-2016: A Shift in Strategies"** - This article examines how the 2016 presidential election has led to changes in political communication strategies among candidates and parties, including an increased focus on emotional appeals and the importance of connecting with voters on a personal level.

2. **"Rhetoric and Emotion: Bridging the Divide in Public Discourse"** - This piece discusses the role of emotional engagement in rhetoric, highlighting the necessity of integrating emotions into political arguments to foster understanding and bridge ideological divides.

3. **"Education Reform and the Loss of Public Speaking: A Critical Analysis"** - This article critiques recent education reforms, such as the Common Core standards, which prioritize logical reasoning over effective speaking and persuasion skills in classrooms, and explores the implications for future generations.

4. **"The Role of Persuasion in Political Communication: Beyond Facts and Logic"** - This article argues for the revival of persuasive techniques in political communication, emphasizing that engaging individuals emotionally can lead to more fruitful discussions across political differences.

5. **"Standardized Testing and the Erosion of Debate Skills: An Educational Crisis"** - This article links standardized testing practices to a decline in debate and public speaking skills in American education, discussing the potential long-term effects on political engagement and discourse.

6. **"The Dividing Lines of Rhetoric: Understanding Persuasion vs. Argumentation"** - This article explores the philosophical underpinnings of communication, investigating how separating persuasion from logical argumentation can create barriers in public dialogue and diminish the effectiveness of communication.

7. **"Reviving Rhetorical Education: A Call for Comprehensive Communication Skills"** - This piece advocates for a renewed focus on rhetoric in educational curricula, arguing for teaching styles that embrace emotional intelligence, persuasive techniques, and the nuances of human interaction to better prepare students for civic engagement.

Each of these articles delves into aspects of rhetoric, education, and political communication similar to those mentioned in your video, discussing the implications of these themes on public discourse and civic life.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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You know, I think for Rhetoricians, the, you know,

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all this can be really traced back

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to the 2016 US presidential election.

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I think it was just a shock to so many of us.

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There was obviously the, the electoral defeat.

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Uh, and even, you know, obviously from a kind

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of a partisan point of view, this was disappointing for lots

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of, kind of left-leaning academics.

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But there was a sense that they, you know, they, they kind

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of clearly superior set of beliefs, you know, had,

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had, you know, had, had, was not just contested,

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but it had actually lost the,

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the majority vote in large parts of the country.

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And I think this was kind of, shocking for,

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for a lot of people

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and kind of concerning for what that meant for the,

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the appeal of positions

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and beliefs that that seemed to be, in some ways

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so, so dangerous.

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Uh, but I think even worse than that, for a a lot of people,

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a lot of educators interested in politics

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and rhetoric was a sense, you know,

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and I think this, you know, was,

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was happening across the globe around this time was,

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was a sense that the very foundations of, of

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a political communication, had, had collapsed.

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That there was a sense, perhaps exaggerated,

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but there was a sense that, it was now impossible even

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to talk across divides.

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It wasn't just that, you know, you might lose a debate.

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Uh, it was that you, you could no longer debate.

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There was a sense that the actual kind of foundations,

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a kind of a shared sense of reality, had, had been lost.

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And, I think that was a real kind of shock to,

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to the system for, for lots of people like me,

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and people had different kind of solutions

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for it over the past few years.

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There's, you know, there a, a, a kind of a raw,

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political, sense that we just now have

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to fight it out to the end.

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And this will be an existential battle.

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And, you know, one side will, will be eliminated

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and the other not.

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But I think, you know, other people have offered,

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you know, maybe more kind of educational solutions.

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We need to kind of, teach history better.

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We need to teach empathy better.

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And obviously lots of technical solutions having to do

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with fact checking and, social media and all that.

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Uh, for me, I, I came to realize that, you know, the,

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the old line, that the only antidote for bad rhetoric

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was more rhetoric.

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Uh, I, I came to see the kind of truth than that.

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And I, I actually, in a way, it kind of brought me back

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to the, the origins of my, of my discipline and persuasion,

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and a reapp appreciation, for,

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for persuasion even understanding.

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It's in incredible,

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Um, you know, difficulties and, and vulnerabilities.

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You know, rhetoric is a, is a Greek word, Greek

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and origin, the, the art of the public speaker, the art

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of the re, in Athens, kind

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of meant the art of the politician.

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Uh, it had opponents from the very beginning,

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the most famous being Plato.

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Um, but in some ways it, it won the educational battle

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of antiquity and became really the center as the art

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of persuasion, kind of the, the center of education,

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from antiquity up through the European Renaissance.

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And, had ups and downs.

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Uh, but there was a sense that,

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persuasion was necessary

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and you had to train people to do it well,

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and you had to, to, to also

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to think carefully about, the dangers of persuasion

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and how, how a community could, could,

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could, could, could, you know,

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could think about those things.

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Um, the, the kind of classic story is

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that the enlightenment in Europe becomes a moment, not just

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that, questions, rhetoric.

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Rhetoric had always been questioned and, and rightfully so,

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because it's a, it's a, you know, it's a very fraught,

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enterprise.

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But I think,

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modern philosophers began actually an attempt,

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explicitly to banish rhetoric from, from philosophy,

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from the education system.

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And I, I draw a lot here on,

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Brian Garten's 2006 book Saving Persuasion, where he really

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walks through, kind of,

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foundational modern philosophers, Hobbes, Rousseau Kant,

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and shows how they attempted to, in some sense,

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alienate ordinary powers of judgment, to

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authorities of various kind,

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whether it was a sovereign person in a, in a king,

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whether it was a representative body

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that would make all the decisions for us,

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or whether in a kind of a conent sense, it was public reason

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with a capital R, that would, that would,

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you know, move away from rhetoric, from the passions,

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from prejudices, from partisanship,

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and attempt to, to make all decisions based on reason alone.

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And this is, of course, in some ways,

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a very attractive, position.

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Uh, you know, I think all of us are, are in some sense,

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afraid of letting major decisions, you know, left up

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to, to the people.

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Um, but I,

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but Garten, I think is right, that which is that,

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you know, the, the dangers

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of the modern philosophical project in some ways are worse

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than the dangers of, of rhetoric.

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Certainly from the point of view of democracy.

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We have to learn, to appreciate persuasion,

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to carve out the space where it is, it is appropriate,

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and to, to tame as much as we can, vice

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that are associated, with it.

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And, and in some sense that,

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that I think has been the project of what a lot

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of people have called the new rhetoric, from the,

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from the, say mid 20th century, on,

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and it's been an uphill climb.

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The, the modern philosophers, you know, in,

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in some ways we're, we're very persuasive themselves and,

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and have made us afraid of,

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putting major public decisions, to something as,

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as vulnerable, as fraught as persuasion.

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It seems it doesn't seem the best way we should be making

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our decisions, but I, I think arson, you know, is right.

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That, that if, if, if we don't accept that,

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then you're going to have a people

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that is constantly feeling like their positions,

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even their passions, their prejudices, are,

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are being, trampled on.

07:13.275 --> 07:16.685
Well, again, this is a story Americans, like to tell.

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Um, I think there, there is some,

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some research that backs it up.

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But, it, it is a story that you hear here,

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which is really a story about the 19th century.

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There's a, a great book by Gregory Clark

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and Michael Halleran called The Oratorical Culture.

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And they argue that the 19th century in the United States,

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while Europe was increasingly moving towards a secular,

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society towards a, a society, you know, where the, the,

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the rise of reason

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and science were, were kind of making their mark in,

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in politics, that the United States retained this kind

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of vibrant and very messy, oratorical culture.

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Um, probably attributed first just to the, to the,

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the decentralization of our governance structure

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and literally this kind of huge space for democracy

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that, the, the 19th century United States, allowed

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for just the, you know, more

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and more places where ordinary people were called

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upon to make decisions.

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There's also some research to suggest that the

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religious revivals in the United States, which really went,

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went in some ways longer

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and further, than than anywhere else,

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that they fomented a very kind of vibrant political culture.

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And the one that I've been most interested in is,

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is the role of, debate

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and, speechmaking in American colleges

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that we have tended to retain a place, even

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through the 20th century, re re retained a place for kind

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of, public speaking, and,

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and debate, that, that,

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in some ways has withered in,

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in academic cultures, elsewhere.

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And they, they have attenuated in the United States as well,

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which is, which is worrisome, you know, I was,

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was just talking about, you know, the,

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the ways in which even this kind

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of vibrant oratorical culture in the,

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in American higher education, you know, has,

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has really kind of faced difficulties across the,

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the 20th century is as the academy became more specialized,

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as, you know, courses, you know, like,

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first year composition, first year public speaking,

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they, they in some ways kind

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of became increasingly marginalized.

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Uh, and that's been been worrisome to people like me,

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although we have retained this kind of small place, for,

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for general instruction in,

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in public writing and public speaking.

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But I, I think the situation in the, in the schools,

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particularly the secondary schools in the United States,

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has been what has been most worrisome, to me.

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And, and some of it actually comes from higher education.

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So I, I I, I try not to in this way, to blame, you know,

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secondary, teachers.

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This is a, a noble, noble profession and,

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and a difficult one.

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But I, I've been concerned about the, the kind of loss

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of debate, the loss of speech, the loss

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of persuasion in the schools.

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And, and I, I focus a lot of it on the rise of the,

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so-called Common Core.

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Um, you know, unlike in, in a lot of European countries,

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we have never had a centralized, school curriculum

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in this country, as people have always said.

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It's literally been up to 15,000 local school districts

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with some state level, curriculum that changed

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to a degree, around the time of the George, w Bush,

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administration

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and the, the rise of a, of a national standards movement,

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really focused on, on English and math,

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and in some ways still had a fairly light touch,

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you know, com, compared

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to more centralized systems in, in Europe.

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But we did for the first time develop a nationwide,

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primary and secondary school standards in

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English and math.

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Uh, and I became alarmed,

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a little bit alarmed when I first started

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learning about the,

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secondary English language, standards.

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And these have been voluntarily, endorsed

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by the majority of states in the United States.

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It's been very controversial,

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but there's no question it's had, some influence on,

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English language arts, teaching in,

11:58.625 --> 12:00.765
in American, schools.

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And, the, the, the part that I became interested in,

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partly because I teach future English teachers, so I, I had

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to learn about it and had to help them, learn about it.

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And I, I started noticing what I thought was a very odd,

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to me, binary

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and opposition being drawn between persuasion and argument.

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And I saw resources

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and began hearing teachers,

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and even their, their graduates,

12:33.465 --> 12:36.125
the students coming into college,

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talking about persuasion

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as if it was not a part of argument.

12:41.745 --> 12:44.285
Uh, but that in fact, it was the opposite of argument

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that it was, it was a bad thing to do.

12:47.945 --> 12:51.085
Uh, and it was connected with two other binaries

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that I started noticing.

12:53.225 --> 12:56.565
Um, and there's been research on both of these, that,

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that are parts of our culture,

12:58.745 --> 13:02.005
but that have seeped into the schools, the binary

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between fact and opinion, that these are two things

13:05.715 --> 13:08.315
that should never meet, that one of them is good,

13:08.315 --> 13:10.435
and one of them is bad, one of them objective,

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and the other subjective,

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actually showing up in the schools

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and in, in the teaching of, the English language arts.

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And the other one was a longstanding binary

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between the third and the first person.

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So, you know, academic discourse,

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public discourse should always be in the, the third person,

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the first person is for private discourse.

13:31.825 --> 13:35.515
It's, subjective, problematic, maybe creative writing.

13:36.255 --> 13:40.755
Um, so, so I've been concerned about, about that.

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And I don't know what else to do about it,

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except I've been trying to write against it, to,

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to suggest that, this binary is actually dangerous.

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That, it comes from good intentions.

13:53.415 --> 13:56.755
And I think from the same kind of things since 2016 and

13:56.755 --> 13:59.155
before that have worried a lot of people,

13:59.795 --> 14:02.075
I think the schools, in some sense, have over,

14:02.545 --> 14:05.115
they have gone too far in the other direction.

14:05.815 --> 14:09.435
Uh, and the, the common core calls for logical argument

14:09.735 --> 14:12.115
to be taught in the schools and,

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and actually critiques, the role

14:15.455 --> 14:19.355
of the first person in argument actually critiques, the,

14:19.375 --> 14:21.835
the role of what Rhetoricians talk about ethos

14:21.935 --> 14:25.915
and pathos, that, that persuasion is,

14:26.375 --> 14:30.235
is never fully contained in logos

14:30.255 --> 14:32.635
or in logical discourse, that that's important,

14:32.775 --> 14:35.875
but never sufficient in political communication.

14:35.875 --> 14:39.595
That you always have the, the role of the speaker themselves

14:39.655 --> 14:42.875
or ethos, and you always have the role of emotions.

14:43.535 --> 14:45.795
Uh, emotions are not a bad thing.

14:46.355 --> 14:48.595
Emotions are the way human beings reason,

14:48.815 --> 14:51.075
and they can be manipulated and misused.

14:51.825 --> 14:54.565
Um, but we can't pretend that they don't exist,

14:54.665 --> 14:56.285
and we can't pretend that they're not part

14:56.285 --> 14:57.765
of political discourse.

14:58.245 --> 15:00.925
I think it's an uphill, I think it's an uphill battle.

15:01.265 --> 15:05.445
And, and again, I'm, you know, the, the, you know, to,

15:05.465 --> 15:07.565
to tell people that our arguments

15:07.905 --> 15:11.445
or our public decisions should be based on facts

15:11.625 --> 15:14.005
and statistics and reason and truth.

15:14.745 --> 15:16.765
Uh, these are hard things to argue against.

15:16.945 --> 15:20.285
And I, and you know, my point is not to argue,

15:20.285 --> 15:23.205
against them, but to suggest that they're insufficient.

15:23.665 --> 15:27.925
Uh, that, that we are, that we are, beings

15:28.005 --> 15:31.605
with bodies that we are, we live in groups,

15:31.995 --> 15:35.365
that we have strong attachments,

15:35.435 --> 15:38.005
that are sometimes referred to as prejudices,

15:38.105 --> 15:39.925
but that are,

15:40.225 --> 15:44.525
are in some ways an in eradicable part, of ourselves.

15:45.105 --> 15:49.885
Um, you know, I, I, I kind of give one example,

15:50.465 --> 15:51.685
based on my research,

15:51.745 --> 15:53.925
as I was looking at the common core, I,

15:54.045 --> 15:58.645
I found a resource online, from, from a teacher,

15:58.645 --> 16:01.965
writing to other teachers about how they could shift

16:02.585 --> 16:06.885
the teaching of, of, public writing

16:06.945 --> 16:08.285
and argument in the schools

16:08.795 --> 16:10.925
away from persuasion to argument.

16:11.665 --> 16:16.285
And this teacher said, using an old, kind of a classic,

16:16.285 --> 16:20.325
writing assignment from the schools, this teacher said,

16:20.475 --> 16:22.925
instead of asking students to write a letter

16:22.925 --> 16:24.125
to their principal

16:25.025 --> 16:27.605
or their, their director of the school, instead

16:27.605 --> 16:30.805
of asking them to write a letter about why recess,

16:31.285 --> 16:34.165
I don't know if you, if you all use that expression, instead

16:34.165 --> 16:37.325
of asking them to, to write a letter about why recess should

16:37.325 --> 16:41.445
be preserved or even expanded, the, this teacher said,

16:41.445 --> 16:45.205
we should be telling students to do research on

16:46.025 --> 16:50.485
recess and then compile, you know, arguments based on

16:50.485 --> 16:52.805
what we have learned about, about research.

16:54.145 --> 16:58.085
And my immediate thought was, why not do both?

16:59.105 --> 17:03.325
Why not, you know, teach students how to do research on,

17:03.425 --> 17:07.805
on recess to understand what we know about, about young,

17:08.095 --> 17:11.245
young children and the need for physical, physical exercise

17:11.265 --> 17:12.685
and breaks during the day?

17:12.865 --> 17:15.645
And, you know, all these things that we've learned about it.

17:15.705 --> 17:18.805
And students should, should learn how to read that kind

17:19.005 --> 17:20.525
of, discourse.

17:20.525 --> 17:23.005
They should learn how to contribute it, contribute,

17:23.225 --> 17:24.365
to it themselves.

17:25.185 --> 17:28.845
Uh, but they should also learn how to, based on

17:28.845 --> 17:31.205
that research, you know, which is never

17:31.965 --> 17:34.205
sufficient in itself, to,

17:34.345 --> 17:37.165
to make controversial public decisions.

17:37.555 --> 17:41.965
They should learn how then to marshal that kind of research,

17:42.665 --> 17:45.605
and then to try to change the world based on it.

17:45.825 --> 17:49.925
And that requires a training in how to be persuasive

17:50.265 --> 17:53.325
and, in attending to one's audience

17:53.465 --> 17:57.045
and thinking about their prejudices, their partisan,

17:57.215 --> 18:00.805
identities, thinking about their emotions,

18:01.025 --> 18:02.805
and realizing that the only way

18:02.805 --> 18:06.925
that we can make these difficult decisions in the world, in,

18:07.345 --> 18:10.805
in self-governing communities is if we,

18:11.505 --> 18:14.725
if we acknowledge the differences that we have,

18:14.825 --> 18:19.085
the different starting points that we have, and that logos

18:19.265 --> 18:21.965
or logic, truth, statistics,

18:21.965 --> 18:23.885
these are not sufficient, for us.

18:23.885 --> 18:28.365
We, we have to learn how to, to, to, to deal

18:28.365 --> 18:31.205
with politics is a much more comprehensive,

18:31.485 --> 18:35.485
a much more enjoyable, and a much more powerful art.

Rhetoric and the Impact of 2016 Election

00:00:00 - You know, I think for Rhetoricians, the, you know, all this can be really traced back to the 2016 US presidential election. I think it was just a shock to so many of us. There was obviously the, the electoral defeat. and even, you know, obviously from a kind of a partisan point of view, this was disappointing for lots of, kind of left-leaning academics. But there was a sense that they, you know, they, they kind of clearly superior set of beliefs, you know, had,
00:00:35 - but it had actually lost the, the majority vote in large parts of the country. And I think this was kind of, shocking for, for a lot of people and kind of concerning for what that meant for the, the appeal of positions and beliefs that that seemed to be, in some ways so, so dangerous. but I think even worse than that, for a a lot of people, a lot of educators interested in politics
00:01:07 - and I think this, you know, was, was happening across the globe around this time was, was a sense that the very foundations of, of a political communication, had, had collapsed. That there was a sense, perhaps exaggerated, but there was a sense that, it was now impossible even to talk across divides. It wasn't just that, you know, you might lose a debate. it was that you, you could no longer debate.
00:01:38 - a kind of a shared sense of reality, had, had been lost. And, I think that was a real kind of shock to, to the system for, for lots of people like me, and people had different kind of solutions for it over the past few years. There's, you know, there a, a, a kind of a raw, political, sense that we just now have to fight it out to the end. And this will be an existential battle.
00:02:09 - and the other not. But I think, you know, other people have offered, you know, maybe more kind of educational solutions. We need to kind of, teach history better. We need to teach empathy better. And obviously lots of technical solutions having to do with fact checking and, social media and all that. for me, I, I came to realize that, you know, the, the old line, that the only antidote for bad rhetoric
00:02:40 - I, I came to see the kind of truth than that. And I, I actually, in a way, it kind of brought me back to the, the origins of my, of my discipline and persuasion, and a reapp appreciation, for, for persuasion even understanding. It's in incredible, you know, difficulties and, and vulnerabilities. You know, rhetoric is a, is a Greek word, Greek and origin, the, the art of the public speaker, the art

Reviving Rhetoric: The Lost Art of Persuasion

00:03:16 - of meant the art of the politician. it had opponents from the very beginning, the most famous being Plato. but in some ways it, it won the educational battle of antiquity and became really the center as the art of persuasion, kind of the, the center of education, from antiquity up through the European Renaissance. And, had ups and downs. but there was a sense that,
00:03:47 - and you had to train people to do it well, and you had to, to, to also to think carefully about, the dangers of persuasion and how, how a community could, could, could, could, could, you know, could think about those things. the, the kind of classic story is that the enlightenment in Europe becomes a moment, not just that, questions, rhetoric.
00:04:18 - because it's a, it's a, you know, it's a very fraught, enterprise. But I think, modern philosophers began actually an attempt, explicitly to banish rhetoric from, from philosophy, from the education system. And I, I draw a lot here on, Brian Garten's 2006 book Saving Persuasion, where he really walks through, kind of,
00:04:50 - and shows how they attempted to, in some sense, alienate ordinary powers of judgment, to authorities of various kind, whether it was a sovereign person in a, in a king, whether it was a representative body that would make all the decisions for us, or whether in a kind of a conent sense, it was public reason with a capital R, that would, that would,
00:05:24 - from prejudices, from partisanship, and attempt to, to make all decisions based on reason alone. And this is, of course, in some ways, a very attractive, position. you know, I think all of us are, are in some sense, afraid of letting major decisions, you know, left up to, to the people. but I, but Garten, I think is right, that which is that,
00:05:54 - of the modern philosophical project in some ways are worse than the dangers of, of rhetoric. Certainly from the point of view of democracy. We have to learn, to appreciate persuasion, to carve out the space where it is, it is appropriate, and to, to tame as much as we can, vice that are associated, with it. And, and in some sense that, that I think has been the project of what a lot of people have called the new rhetoric, from the,

Challenges of Rhetoric in Modern Decision-Making

00:06:27 - and it's been an uphill climb. The, the modern philosophers, you know, in, in some ways we're, we're very persuasive themselves and, and have made us afraid of, putting major public decisions, to something as, as vulnerable, as fraught as persuasion. It seems it doesn't seem the best way we should be making our decisions, but I, I think arson, you know, is right.
00:07:00 - then you're going to have a people that is constantly feeling like their positions, even their passions, their prejudices, are, are being, trampled on. Well, again, this is a story Americans, like to tell. I think there, there is some, some research that backs it up. But, it, it is a story that you hear here,
00:07:27 - There's a, a great book by Gregory Clark and Michael Halleran called The Oratorical Culture. And they argue that the 19th century in the United States, while Europe was increasingly moving towards a secular, society towards a, a society, you know, where the, the, the rise of reason and science were, were kind of making their mark in, in politics, that the United States retained this kind of vibrant and very messy, oratorical culture.
00:08:03 - the decentralization of our governance structure and literally this kind of huge space for democracy that, the, the 19th century United States, allowed for just the, you know, more and more places where ordinary people were called upon to make decisions. There's also some research to suggest that the religious revivals in the United States, which really went,
00:08:33 - and further, than than anywhere else, that they fomented a very kind of vibrant political culture. And the one that I've been most interested in is, is the role of, debate and, speechmaking in American colleges that we have tended to retain a place, even through the 20th century, re re retained a place for kind of, public speaking, and, and debate, that, that,
00:09:06 - in academic cultures, elsewhere. And they, they have attenuated in the United States as well, which is, which is worrisome, you know, I was, was just talking about, you know, the, the ways in which even this kind of vibrant oratorical culture in the, in American higher education, you know, has, has really kind of faced difficulties across the, the 20th century is as the academy became more specialized,

Decline of Persuasion in American Education

00:09:39 - first year composition, first year public speaking, they, they in some ways kind of became increasingly marginalized. and that's been been worrisome to people like me, although we have retained this kind of small place, for, for general instruction in, in public writing and public speaking. But I, I think the situation in the, in the schools, particularly the secondary schools in the United States,
00:10:10 - And, and some of it actually comes from higher education. So I, I I, I try not to in this way, to blame, you know, secondary, teachers. This is a, a noble, noble profession and, and a difficult one. But I, I've been concerned about the, the kind of loss of debate, the loss of speech, the loss of persuasion in the schools. And, and I, I focus a lot of it on the rise of the,
00:10:39 - you know, unlike in, in a lot of European countries, we have never had a centralized, school curriculum in this country, as people have always said. It's literally been up to 15,000 local school districts with some state level, curriculum that changed to a degree, around the time of the George, w Bush, administration and the, the rise of a, of a national standards movement,
00:11:13 - and in some ways still had a fairly light touch, you know, com, compared to more centralized systems in, in Europe. But we did for the first time develop a nationwide, primary and secondary school standards in English and math. and I became alarmed, a little bit alarmed when I first started learning about the, secondary English language, standards.
00:11:47 - by the majority of states in the United States. It's been very controversial, but there's no question it's had, some influence on, English language arts, teaching in, in American, schools. And, the, the, the part that I became interested in, partly because I teach future English teachers, so I, I had to learn about it and had to help them, learn about it.
00:12:19 - to me, binary and opposition being drawn between persuasion and argument. And I saw resources and began hearing teachers, and even their, their graduates, the students coming into college, talking about persuasion as if it was not a part of argument. but that in fact, it was the opposite of argument that it was, it was a bad thing to do.

Challenging the Fact-Opinion Dichotomy in Education

00:12:51 - that I started noticing. and there's been research on both of these, that, that are parts of our culture, but that have seeped into the schools, the binary between fact and opinion, that these are two things that should never meet, that one of them is good, and one of them is bad, one of them objective, and the other subjective, actually showing up in the schools and in, in the teaching of, the English language arts. And the other one was a longstanding binary
00:13:23 - So, you know, academic discourse, public discourse should always be in the, the third person, the first person is for private discourse. It's, subjective, problematic, maybe creative writing. so, so I've been concerned about, about that. And I don't know what else to do about it, except I've been trying to write against it, to, to suggest that, this binary is actually dangerous. That, it comes from good intentions.
00:13:56 - before that have worried a lot of people, I think the schools, in some sense, have over, they have gone too far in the other direction. and the, the common core calls for logical argument to be taught in the schools and, and actually critiques, the role of the first person in argument actually critiques, the, the role of what Rhetoricians talk about ethos and pathos, that, that persuasion is,
00:14:30 - or in logical discourse, that that's important, but never sufficient in political communication. That you always have the, the role of the speaker themselves or ethos, and you always have the role of emotions. emotions are not a bad thing. Emotions are the way human beings reason, and they can be manipulated and misused. but we can't pretend that they don't exist, and we can't pretend that they're not part of political discourse.
00:15:01 - And, and again, I'm, you know, the, the, you know, to, to tell people that our arguments or our public decisions should be based on facts and statistics and reason and truth. these are hard things to argue against. And I, and you know, my point is not to argue, against them, but to suggest that they're insufficient. that, that we are, that we are, beings with bodies that we are, we live in groups,
00:15:35 - that are sometimes referred to as prejudices, but that are, are in some ways an in eradicable part, of ourselves. you know, I, I, I kind of give one example, based on my research, as I was looking at the common core, I, I found a resource online, from, from a teacher, writing to other teachers about how they could shift

Integrating Persuasion and Research in Education

00:16:06 - and argument in the schools away from persuasion to argument. And this teacher said, using an old, kind of a classic, writing assignment from the schools, this teacher said, instead of asking students to write a letter to their principal or their, their director of the school, instead of asking them to write a letter about why recess, I don't know if you, if you all use that expression, instead
00:16:37 - be preserved or even expanded, the, this teacher said, we should be telling students to do research on recess and then compile, you know, arguments based on what we have learned about, about research. And my immediate thought was, why not do both? Why not, you know, teach students how to do research on, on recess to understand what we know about, about young,
00:17:11 - and breaks during the day? And, you know, all these things that we've learned about it. And students should, should learn how to read that kind of, discourse. They should learn how to contribute it, contribute, to it themselves. but they should also learn how to, based on that research, you know, which is never sufficient in itself, to, to make controversial public decisions. They should learn how then to marshal that kind of research,
00:17:45 - And that requires a training in how to be persuasive and, in attending to one's audience and thinking about their prejudices, their partisan, identities, thinking about their emotions, and realizing that the only way that we can make these difficult decisions in the world, in, in self-governing communities is if we, if we acknowledge the differences that we have,
00:18:31 - or logic, truth, statistics, these are not sufficient, for us. We, we have to learn how to, to, to, to deal with politics is a much more comprehensive, a much more enjoyable, and a much more powerful art.

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