Debates and Conversations: From the Ground Up

Too often, the authors assert, discussion of controversial issues in high school classrooms is channeled through the teacher, rather than engaging students in discussion with one another. Teachers fear that students won't know how to talk to one another productively about issues, or that they'll end up in shouting matches. But when students lack opportunities to discuss issues respectfully together, something essential is missing in class discussion, especially if one of education's aims is to prepare students to deliberate on political issues as adults. McAvoy and Hess describe a high school that does teach students to engage in respectful discussion of meaty issues and gives them much practice in doing so through a semester-long simulation of the U.S. legislative process. They explain how teachers at this school train students explicitly in norms of civil discourse and in articulating and debating positions--and provide suggestions for how teachers in any school might adopt these strategies.