Conversation with Klavier:
(This time with Brian Smith, High School English and Social
Studies teacher.)
Klavier: How are you, Brian. Still eager to go to work in the morning?
Brian: Well, generally.
Klavier: Generally? What does that mean?
Brian: Well, I’m not sure. But the turmoil of the times gets to me some days. For instance, the “Israel has a right to defend itself” and the … well, the “genocide of Palestinians” arguments have crept into our school. Students who probably couldn’t find Gaza on a map are aligning themselves with one side or the other.
Klavier: And is that unusual?
Brian: Well they often have opinions that disagree, but it’s like this one has raised up some feelings that … well, that you wouldn’t particularly notice if it was about … I don’t know … say like the other day we were talking about socialism in history class and a debate about the welfare-state-encouraging-laziness broke out. Well I had to admit there are probably people who get themselves on the welfare roles so they can laze about and … and sleep in. But if that were the only argument, what would happen to the many who’ve been dealt a bad hand and simply can’t cut it in this economy without help? It’s like Truth A is competing with Truth B …
Klavier: …when smart people should be able to work out a direction that acknowledges both truths? We live in a competitive and a cooperative world, don’t we. Seems to me your students are aiming toward winning an argument, which means the opposition argument must be shown to have lost. It’s a natural extension of how sports, the economy, education, even the arts can teach us to be … competitive.
Brian: But wait, we do all kinds of stuff cooperatively. Even most things, I’d say. Build roads, run our towns and cities, drive on the right side, etc. Our students cooperate with schedules, movement, order generally … all the time.
Klavier: That’s very true. So why have your students fallen into the my truth is better than yours mode? Are they simply echoing what they’re picking up from the news? From their parents? From their peers?
Brian: I’m sure that’s much of it. I shudder to think what my colleagues might be experiencing if they have Muslims and … and, or Jewish kids in their classes. I’m not even sure how to steer my—I don’t know … can I call them ethnic Canadians?—how I should steer them through the … the emotional rhetoric they’re exposed to, day after day.
Klavier: I don’t know your kids, but I’m led to believe that the main truths about the conflict in Israel and Gaza are buried in history. Reread Exodus and Joshua in the Bible with an enquiring mind, do what you can to gain a fair grasp of the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel as a Jewish homeland in 1948.
Brian: Well, I’ve already done that last part. Seems to me setting up a state as a homeland for a particular ethnic … well, ethnic or religious minority … was a big mistake.
Klavier: But, Brian, was it both a huge mistake and an absolute moral necessity? Are we looking at two truths that appear contradictory, but are both … well, true?
Klavier: Maybe since you’ve done your historical basics, maybe the best approach is to encourage them to find their basics. It probably can’t be done using the Israel, Gaza war; they’ve probably come to be too committed to opposing sides already. Pick a conflict in which they don’t have any real skin and have them actively work toward a solution that honours conflicting truths. That would make sense to me.
Brian: Like how would we do that?
Klavier: Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but this might work. Pose this case of conflict: a street of old houses, all abandoned, have become occupied by “vagrants,” according to the city, let’s say. Homeless people, drug addicts and assorted anti-socials and others are squatting there. The city decides to be decisive, orders the squatters out and contracts to have the buildings bulldozed and the lots redivided for sale. Human rights advocates and social action groups protest and some of the “residents” vow to be bulldozed with the old houses rather than move to who-knows-where.
Brian: Sounds like Detroit.
Klavier: Could be, or any other metropolis experiencing the agonies of inner-city decay, homelessness and poverty.
Brian: But how do I engage their minds in this? We’re all middle-class suburbanites.
Klavier: Well I’m not a teacher and the thought of running a high school classroom fills me with existential fear, but I think this is what I might do. I’d divide them into groups of four by counting off—no cliques allowed. Then I’d rearrange the room so groups could dialogue properly. I’d give the groups this assignment: “The city has given the Human Rights lobby the task of arbitrating between the city and the squatters. Imagine your group is that arbitrator. Come up with three action points that you think could be approved by both sides. Be sure to consider cost, benefit, logistics like who will do necessary work, etc. Even cost out the items as accurately as you can.”
Brian: Some would hand in their list in five minutes.
Klavier: Of course. And the same people might possibly hope there’s a prize for being fastest. But that’s how I—a layperson—think I would have learned the basics of cooperatively finding ways to solve problems. I won’t insult your experience and training any further by suggesting methodology you understand better than I do.
Brian: Knowing my students, they’ll finish this exercise … and … and then go back to yelling their “facts” at each other in the hallways, even in History class.
Klavier: Ahh, but we have people who know how to make the basics of listening patiently and negotiating respectfully real, even when the problems seem impossible. Adults who flog opinions as if they were facts should stay out of classrooms and politics, perhaps be potato growers instead … potatoes are always the right answer.
Brian: And where are these “people who know how?”
Klavier: They’re everywhere. We call them teachers. Or parents. Or some are both.
Brian: Nice!
Klavier: You’re welcome.
