Disagreeing with grace, listening to learn

Thank you to educator and author Jason Craige Harris and the dozens of parents, caregivers, alumni and educators who came together tonight for a lively workshop on democracy, dissent, disagreement and decision making.

Harris walked the crowd through the differences between interacting and transacting, understanding and making someone feel understood, low stakes and high stakes conversations, bridging and bonding, dialogue and advocacy, and an array of cognitive phenomena ranging from confirmation bias to the fundamental attrition error.
 

Along the way, he left the audience with practical strategies for building trust and finding paths to understanding that lead past polarizing obstacles.
 

It was part of a full day for Harris that included meetings with students and teachers and a hour-long seminar for Gordon’s full faculty and staff.
 

He began his visit to Gordon with a lively half-hour exchange with seventh grade.

For seventh grade, he used math, natural science, cognitive science and psychology to present concrete ideas on how to express disagreement, how to listen with compassion, and how to apologize well and thoroughly.

It was a refreshing take that found a path to connection in situations that can so often be divisive. It also connected directly to the passage in George Orwell’s Animal Farm that had seventh grade discussed earlier in the day.
 

Harris’s visit is just one of many conversations about democracy, dissent, disagreement and decision making that happen on Gordon’s campus every week, at every grade level. In this pivotal election year, these lessons have taken on new energy. For more recent examples, see this blog post.