I have been thinking and talking quite a bit lately about rhetoric and poltics. In particular, the difference between the rhetoric of pronouncement--a mode of discourse that announces, castigates, and alienates--and the rhetoric of persuasion--a mode of discourse designed to persuade others who disagree with you to consider and perhaps adopt your view.
On the micro level of the classroom experience, the rhetoric of persuasion allows a shift from a relationship with others based on separatation and difference to a relationship based on mutual respect and a search for at least the possibility of some common grounds. While the rhetoric of persuasion opens up possibilities and invites compromise and exchange, the rhetoric of pronouncement asserts boundaries and imposes absolutes. The rhetoric of persuasion encourages us to listen to each other; the rhetoric of pronouncement requires us to talk at each other.
This line of thinking opens up some interesting connections for me between what I do in the classroom and what I feel is happening in the world. More later...
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