Blog Post #1: "Discussion in a Democratic Society" Chapter 1

Classrooms that are run with democratic characteristics are unlike any I have ever experienced. In grade school, discussion based classes were non-existent. In middle school, the majority of my classes were lecture based. In high school, speech and debate was the only exposure I had ever dealt with in the classroom. By the time my freshman year of college rolled around, I had very little experience with any sort of large group discussions. After reading this chapter, I soon realized that this idea of democratic discussion was extremely popular amongst my English professors. I found that most of my professors liked to sit back and guide discussion rather than lecture for multiple hours. I thought that this article was fairly accurate when it talked about the upside and downside of having democratic discussions. Throughout my sophomore and junior year, I had plenty of experience with both very productive discussions as well as fruitless discussions. Though some discussions were wasteful, I’ve found that a democratically ran discussion provides students and educators with a great deal of beneficial information.

Democratic discussion “is premised on the idea that only through collaboration and cooperation with others can we be exposed to new points of view” (4). When I read this quote, I instantly thought of a traditional high school classroom where collaboration is virtually non-existent. My reaction to this thought was that students of this generation have some of the brightest and forward thinking mindsets on this entire earth. The problem with a teacher just teaching is that those ideas and concepts may never be tapped even if that is the teachers goal. Throughout my student teaching, I’ve found that collaboration, opinion, and cooperation with other students are a positive and valuable tactic to approach learning.

Later on in the chapter, the author talked about the main differences between discussions and conversations. The way the author articulated this idea was done perfectly. Discussion is far more serious and there is an end goal to reach. Conversations is more carefree, informal, and aimless. I started thinking about this to see if any of my other classes were having conversations or discussions. I found that my day consisted of both. In one class, our discussion was based on teacher qualities and how each one plays into being a successful teacher. We had an end goal in mind to reach an agreement for a bigger discussion. In another class, we had some free time and I struck up a conversation with the guy to my right. We spoke about school and where we worked and his cars. I soon realized that there was a huge difference between the two and I had never even thought about it before. I believe that there is a time and place for both conversations and discussions inside your classroom, but I see a lot of potential upside to holding important discussions with the entire classroom.