Discussion in a Democratic Society

          The first chapter of  "Discussion in a Democratic Society," provided me with the knowledge to know why a democratic class discussion is so important to me as a teacher, as well as my students. Having been in school for several years, I have witnessed several class room discussions that have started off on the right track, and then speed off of the rails into a whole new (completely off topic) conversation. There were several different reasons for the change of topic. The first was the lack of hospitality -- entering the conversation required one to be bold and highly educated on the topic at hand. This led to only a few students taking part in the discussion. The chapter tells of ways to avoid such an incident in a classroom. It is important that all students feel as though they can hop into the discussion at any time because their opinion will be respected and valued. Another valuable tip that is offered, is to have a large amount of students involved in the conversation. Having a lack of participating students will lead to a quick, underdeveloped classroom discussion. In every classroom there will be at least one student who is hesitant to share their opinions to the entire group, therefore it is important to make the extra effort to make sure that student's opinion in heard. However, perhaps that student works best in smaller groups. While in a class at EWU a teacher had this situation with several students in the class. A quick fix was to have the class pre-arranged into small groups. Then, when the large class discussion started to lose its power, the class would break up into the smaller groups to discuss with one another. This method generated more talk from students which was then added to the whole class discussion. Through this method of teaching I feel as if the classroom can become more Democratic. I say so because the class will be able to have multiple voices all with their own opinions. Perhaps a better way to organize the class is to ask them straight up what they think about a certain topic, and then go from there. This way, as a teacher, you will be able to see which students are thinking a certain way. However that was simply one way of inspiring an entire classroom discussion. In the first chapter, it states that it is not necessary to have your whole class take part in the conversation.