Thursday, January 26, 2012

Open Minds and School Board Meetings

A woman walks up to the microphone at a School Board meeting. Folks at the front are already muttering. When the woman announces that she is a teacher, several moan and groan. Then when she announces that she lives outside of the district, moaning turns to boos and smug laughter. These folks in the front are clearly being rude, but more importantly they aren’t listening. They will reject anything this woman says because of who is saying it. All of us start judging an argument the moment we see the person who is going to make it. That is unavoidable. At a city council meeting concerning a directive to police to pull over people who are likely to be illegally in the country and ask for documentation, when a woman who appears to be of Mexican descent steps up to the microphone everyone in that meeting has already started to draw conclusions about what she will say. It’s just human nature. What is not unavoidable is what happens once she opens her mouth. Not all of us find ways to support our initial conclusions regardless of what is said. Some of us actually listen. Some of us are able to alter our initial impressions. A few of us can even change our minds on the underlying issue. It can even happen at a school board meeting. Just because children are involved, doesn’t mean we have to be rude, irrational, and completely unable to listen to the arguments of other folks and try to appreciate their logic. Just something to think about in case you happen to find yourself at a school board meeting in the near future.

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