[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_post_title date_format=”j M Y” categories=”off” featured_image=”off” _builder_version=”3.12″ title_font_size=”20px” title_font_size_last_edited=”off|” title_font=”|700||on|||||” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_4″][et_pb_video _builder_version=”3.12″ src=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g5tlcJ1YjDE” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_testimonial author=”Audre Lorde” _builder_version=”3.12″ quote_icon_background_color=”#f5f5f5″]<\/p>\n
When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_testimonial][et_pb_divider divider_weight=”5″ height=”5px” _builder_version=”3.12″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”0|0px|42.5833px|0px|false|false” prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.12.2″]<\/p>\n Music<\/strong><\/p>\n Sing!\u00a0 Anything you want.\u00a0 Sing out loud.\u00a0 i\u2019ll wait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .over here.<\/p>\n How was it?\u00a0 Perhaps you have been singing your whole life.\u00a0 Taken lessons, practiced?\u00a0 Been on stage with a group or even solo?\u00a0 Perhaps you sing only by yourself, in the car or shower (Sir Paul McCartney says the best sound comes from singing in the bathroom).<\/p>\n And in classes, it is the same.\u00a0 Some of you have been expressing your answers and thoughts and ideas and questions in class throughout your years of education.\u00a0 There will be some who rarely, if ever, speak in class, even during a class discussion.\u00a0 i think the same is true in a classroom as it is in musical performance:\u00a0 voice is developed with practice and involves risk, the risk of public performance.\u00a0 Of being judged..<\/p>\n And yet. . .voice – as the expression of who you are, what you think and feel, what you can offer to others – is a critical skill in every workplace.\u00a0 What you say, how you say it, what you say in response to others, is something of critical importance to employers.\u00a0 If we are not learning that in our schooling, are we going to wait and risk failing where we believe it will count the most?\u00a0 Good luck with that!<\/p>\n We\u2019ll come back to music as our metaphor for understanding voice once we consider voice as speaking, not just singing.<\/p>\n Voice in class<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the things that distinguishes education from the rest of the world is that for years, within a given class you have all been expected to see, think, and say the same things.\u00a0 Indeed, it is a primary obsession of students to determine what a professor wants them to think and say.\u00a0 After all, that is the standard criterion for determining what it is you learn in that class.\u00a0 Students are more likely to speak in class to the extent that the answer to the prof\u2019s question is clear and one that comes directly from a text or what the professor has said previously in class.\u00a0 Students learn what the prof wants to hear in class and in written work.\u00a0 Savvy students will even determine how the prof wants them to say it.<\/p>\n As a result, what is important to the prof is whether the students can repeat key course concepts.\u00a0 Think about the pressure that creates for students:\u00a0 They know there is only one right answer and they know everyone else is supposed to have it.\u00a0 A good way to deal with that pressure is to simply let someone else stick his fat neck out.<\/p>\n What is certainly not important is the development of the student\u2019s voice, her specific thoughts on the subject matter.\u00a0 The problem, of course, is that many employers hire people expecting each new employee will offer value to their organizations.\u00a0 To do that, one must have developed their own voice because if everyone has the same answer, there would be little need to employ so many people.<\/p>\n So, what is it that we mean by \u201cvoice<\/em>\u201d in this class?<\/p>\n Given that this is a class which requires your engagement, where much of class time will involve student contributions, at the end of the semester many students will say that they learned a great deal from their classmates.\u00a0 But what does that mean, exactly?\u00a0 i have asked many students what they mean by this and i have generally received a couple different responses:\u00a0 First, they mean that a peer has explained something, or put that something in a certain way, that helped them better understand it.\u00a0 The second, and most powerful meaning of their assessment according to students, is that they were able to see a class concept or theory or practice in a different way.\u00a0 This \u201cdifferent way<\/em>\u201d involves using one\u2019s \u201cvoice<\/em>\u201d and means that you must do more than just repeat the answer in the textbook, the one that everyone is supposed to know.\u00a0 Rather, it involves integrating one’s experiences and knowledge to present things in a different way.\u00a0 That, in business jargon, adds value.<\/p>\n Another reason voice is critical in this class goes to the heart of my philosophy of what the hell we are doing here.<\/p>\n There is so much rhetoric in the public realm these days about free speech on campus, about safe spaces, trigger warnings, censorship, and indoctrination in colleges and universities.\u00a0 i have a difficult time with much of this because i think it treats college students as children, ones who are so easily influenced that you have to be very careful about what you say, and how you say it in order not to hurt anyone’s feelings.\u00a0 But here again my question goes to the curtain that divides higher education from the rest of the world:\u00a0 In using trigger warnings, safe spaces, and making everyone comfortable, are we assuming that the world they enter after college is one where those things exist?\u00a0 Or do we believe the world is safe enough that we don’t need those things?\u00a0 Protecting students from things that, after college, they will face, is setting people up for failure.\u00a0 People saying mean things provides at least two opportunities for learning:\u00a0 How to deal with those people in ways that affirm difference and find common ground as opposed to continuing to polarize, and 2) better understand the impact of saying hurtful things to others when we use them.<\/p>\n A major part of the problem is to see what happens in the classroom, or on campus in speeches, as attempts at indoctrination.\u00a0 Profs want students to understand different, even disturbing ideas, but understanding is quite different than believing.\u00a0 i think an example here is useful.<\/p>\n Many Global Studies majors are suspicious of capitalism and its signature institution: the multinational corporation. Personally, having worked in and studied corporations for years, i have strong concerns of my own.\u00a0 However, my concerns are mostly irrelevant in my classes.\u00a0 Understanding is what is relevant.<\/p>\n So when i created The Global Economy class for Global Studies, i wanted to confront both sides of issues.\u00a0 i structured the class around debates.\u00a0 Thanks to Lauren Kilcoyne, my co-facilitator at the time, we created a wonderful partnership with the Rhode Island Urban Debate League (RIUDL)<\/a><\/strong>, a national organization that sponsors parliamentary debate tournaments in high schools.\u00a0 Students were organized into debate teams and four times during the semester students held major debates.\u00a0 One popular topic was: \u201cIs WalMart good for the global economy<\/em>?”\u00a0 Walmart is always a lightning rod for those studying the impact of globalization.<\/p>\n When it came to assessment, this was included in our syllabus:<\/p>\n Debate assessment<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Although some level of competition can be both motivating and fun, our objective is not to declare a winner in these debates.\u00a0 Both sides will be assessed using RIUDL\u2019s criteria as well as a few of our own.\u00a0 The ideal for which we will strive is that both Affirmative and Negative will do an incredible job in their argumentation, rather than reaching a clear-cut \u201canswer\u201d or \u201csolution.\u201d\u00a0 Thus, the overall objective of the debate is for the sides to work together during the debate to address the question as completely as possible within the presentation framework.\u00a0 Everyone in the class should leave each debate with a much greater understanding of the issues surrounding each question under debate.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And when each of us leaves the classroom, we take the information we have been given and integrate it with our beliefs, our values, and especially what we have learned through our experiences.\u00a0 Even better is when we take the information that runs counter to our current beliefs and understandings and use that to challenge the way we see and think about the issues.\u00a0 Again, college is about learning, not winning.\u00a0 Deep learning in college is what prepares you for winning in life.<\/p>\n