when your teacher writes an essay

This past week I assigned an essay. I also told everyone in our Zoom meetings that I would do the work along with you.  Below is my attempt (essay).  I'd be grateful if you'd take a few moments to read it and comment to this post with any reactions. What do you think was effective about it?  What do you think was confusing or could/should be improved? (My wife thought I should end it a few paragraphs earlier, with the line that says, "A united place.") Was my main idea clear? Did I answer the prompt? Feel free to give it a grade, if you want to! Thanks in advance for your feedback. I look forward to reading your essays and returning the favor. 😀




THE PROMPT:

How can arguing and giving up any "right" to our own opinion save our lives, improve our country, and secure the future for the next generation?

__________________

THE PRE-WRITE:

Points I don’t want to forget:

·      Argument is a search for truth

·      Arguing can bring people together

·      Asserting rights to opinions hijacks the conversation and forces people to agree/ bad

·      Listening and collaborating leads to all sorts of good outcomes

Structure:

·      Attention-getter

·      Main point/ thesis statement

·      Lead into 3 big ideas for body paragraphs

·      Remember transitions and flow

·      Summarize and conclude with a #winner thought or question

_________________

THE DRAFT

When I was in junior high and high school, it seemed to me that people did really stupid things. Even worse, they acted like the stupid things they did were actually perfectly normal. They defended their actions and apparently believed that they were right. I thought they were nuts. That’s one reason I loved watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The show took real life situations and exaggerated them into absurd comic sketches. When I thought about the big things I couldn’t change, like politics, or the economy, or even school, it helped me to watch the show and have a good laugh.

One of my favorite sketches in the show was called “The Argument Clinic.” A man walks into a business office and pays to argue with a professional. But when they begin, the conversation disintegrates. They just say “Yes it is/ Not it’s not” at each other. The customer gets frustrated and says, “An argument is an intellectual process, not just contradiction.”

The professional arguer replies: “No it isn’t.”

I don’t know how we got to this point in American culture where people think argument is some sort of game or conflict, but looking at it that way isn’t helping us. In fact, if we’re afraid of losing, or if we’re afraid that someone will get mad at us or even hurt us if we argue with them, we lose the value of sharing ideas in the first place.

According to Jamie Whyte, author of Crimes of Logic, argument is a search for truth. I’ve thought about this for a while now, and the definition fits; if two people argue with each other, it stands to reason that they care about the same things. They care about the topic they are discussing. They care about being heard and understood. They also care about being right. Since it is impossible to be right without being on the right side of the truth, it’s reasonable to assume they’re both searching for the truth.

But sometimes the way we talk to each other when we argue doesn’t support our search for truth. When people get angry or frustrated or just plain tired, they sometimes raise their voices, or say things like, “Fine. You’re entitled to your opinion.”

Why do people say that a person is entitled to an opinion? Opinions are important, and we feel like they’re personal, so we want to be allowed to have them. That’s all good and fine, but saying we are entitled is something altogether different.

An entitlement (also known as a right) is something that other people have to honor. If I am entitled to cross the street in a crosswalk, you are obligated to stop your car and not run me over. Think about that for a moment. I have a right to my safety, and you are required to honor my right, even if you disagree with it.

So, what if I’m wrong? What if I tell you that the sky is green, and I’m entitled to my opinion? We live in a crazy world where all sorts of people babble all sorts of bullsh** and expect us to go along with it.  But that actually sabotages the search for truth.

I have come to believe that arguing – i.e., searching for the truth – and completely abandoning the “right” to my opinion gives me the opportunity to discover the information that helps me the most. When I engage with other people, and really listen to them, I learn where my evidence is strong and also where new information can lead me to a better way of thinking. This makes my own life better, it enables me to create and sustain relationships with others even when we disagree, and it gives me hope for the future.

When I was dating the woman who would eventually become my wife, we went shopping for groceries and she asked me to pick up some cheddar cheese. I chose a brick of Tillamook, and she laughed at me. “No, seriously,” she said, “can you get some natural stuff?” I was totally confused. “What do you mean?” I asked. She said, “Get some cheese without artificial coloring. What kind of cow gives orange milk?” 
It turns out there’s some history to the color of cheese, but since the 17^th century the answer is: None. The orange in cheddar cheese is artificial coloring. And the weird thing is, my whole life I never even thought to question why the cheese was orange. Moments like this make me realize that argument – searching for the truth with other people in ways that might just change my mind – make my life better.

Besides giving me a better way to think about cheese, that moment in the market also gave my wife and me a memory we’ll never forget. Standing there in the cheese aisle, shocked by the realization that I never even noticed how weird it was that milk is white but cheese was orange, I laughed my ass off. Years later, it still cracks me up when I think about it. I suppose I could have been embarrassed because I clearly didn't know what I was doing, but the important thing was someone I care about challenged my thinking and gave me a better way to see the world.

When we argue with people we have an opportunity to create and strengthen relationships. Listening to someone is an act of generosity, and we feel good about people when they are generous to us. Arguing in this way, even when – especially when – we disagree can help us get along with all sorts of people. And getting along with all sorts of people has never been more important.

Every day we hear about what divides us: politics, religion, economics, health, and people who want a government who helps the country versus people who are full of crap. But what we don’t hear so much about is how people of different backgrounds get together and work things out and create schools, neighborhoods, communities, and organizations that lift people up. Creating a sense of belonging starts with argument as a search for truth – and when people get together and decide that getting along is more important than agreeing, we all become stronger. (Maybe because we're not eating weird stuff in our cheese.)

 There are more than three hundred million people in the United States of America. I’d like to think that all of us can start figuring things out, one argument at a time.

Hall of Fame hockey star Wayne Gretzky put it this way: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” If you don’t play, you can’t win, and if you don’t talk to people about where you disagree, you can’t connect and figure things out.

When we reach out to each other and communicate, we create opportunities for understanding. Understanding leads to bonds that create relationships – this is the secret sauce for community and shared purpose. The motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum, which means, “Out of many, one.” When we argue, when we search for the truth together. We share a purpose and we become a people. We make our country a better place. A united place.

When Americans unite, great things become possible. I visited Boston a few years ago, and I saw the results: the first public school, the first public park, the first public library, the first public … everything. Together we can do things that no individual can. We can build highways. We can create a nation that supports the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.

Most importantly, we can make tomorrow better than today. When millions of us agree to prioritize the future, we can tackle issues like climate change, social justice, and economic inequality. We can decide whether safety should merit gun control policy. We can decide whether the term “pro-life” should apply exclusively to abortion, or also to the death penalty, and what happens in between birth and execution.

The key to all of this is argument: the search for truth. It’s high time we talk to each other, instead of about each other. I see you. I care about you. I want to listen to you. I want you to teach me. And then, when you feel we have a connection with each other based on mutual respect, I want to make the world a better place. Together.