| I teach American government and politics for a living.I also am an assistant coach of one of the nation's best Lincoln Douglas debate teams. I talk to and argue with adolescent boys 8 to 9 hours a day. I listen to them , try to challenge them to become thinking, caring young adults. I am a "liberal" , a progressive if you like ,in a sea of conservatives for those hours. Given our student body, Republicans, conservative Republicans predominate.
Throughout my career, I have been a Socratic method person. That means my lessons are filled with sequences of question, answer, discussion, challenge, defense of position, more challenge - repeat. I love playing the devil's advocate. At some point I found that when I challenged my students fact for fact, they simply clammed up. I knew way more facts then they did. I won the debate, whether it was about welfare or tax cuts for the rich, or whatever. But winning the debate did not equate to getting them to seriously consider the issue, to change their blindly acquired beliefs or at least to question them.
In other words, winning policy wonk style was sterile and useless - the blind remained blind and closed minded. My goal was to move them to think fresh thoughts, to challenge their inherited biases , to open their minds. At this I was clearly failing.
About 15 years ago, I was asked to help give a Jesuit retreat to these same young men. Wishing to allay my fears, I was given some rudimentary training in how one does this effectively. In case you don't know, the Jesuits have been in the education game, the retreat game for about 500 years. They are good and they are smart at both. What I was taught I had to relearn several more times, but this was the first time. The lesson was simply this: you connect as a person, then you have a chance for your message to be heard. You best connect as a person by revealing something of your story, your life, what has made you who you are.
In other words, people, adolescent boys - all of us - open ourselves to reflection and the possibility of change because of who is doing the asking and how they are presenting themselves and their ideas. The key to effectively presenting ourselves and our ideas in order to make change possible is to tell our story, claim the fundamental values we share with our audience. The facts only matter once you matter to them.
Students come back to see me every so often and what they talk about, what they remember are the stories that were told. A lot I told, many others were shared by classmates. They don't talk about the neat exercise where we discussed the imperial presidency and its dangers. They probably don't remember that lesson at all. They do remember my story of being left behind on a Little League ball field because my dad was a black man. I was so treated not because the men who ran the program were evil, they simply did not want to fight the system. My students remember the moral of that tale - that evil systems makes cowards even of good men and women. So, when we discuss affirmative action , I have the authority to make claims about evil systems and their consequences and the need to make amends. Stories are the strongest and most persuasive argument we can make.
The best thing a student every wrote about him was that I was smart and kind. That I shared my knowledge, but I did so with respect for my students. What he was saying is that he trusted me. He trusted me , I believe, because of the stories I told him. He also learned a hell of a lot I hasten to add. He was admitted recently to Harvard Law School.
So what does all this have to do with politics? The answer is simple, everything. Those who lead tell stories, they use their words, the persona that comes through those words to open our minds and hearts to new possibilities. It is not just theory, it is fact. |
