[Mick]

And I believe in the power of honest open debate. If we can actually have that one day it would be nice.  I don’t mean the board.  I mean the country. 

I think it's very difficult to have a truly challenging debate, particularly when people have entrenched opinions and different life experiences and see things from different angles.

My youngest son was in a terrible third grade, team-taught by two "teachers" who genuinely didn't know what they were doing. As I've posted, my mother, mother-in-law and my wife were all teachers.  Mrs. Mick taught in the Palo Alto Unified School District.  She had her student teaching experiences with a Cupertino SD Teacher of the Year.  When PA Unified started to hire teachers again, they received 400 resumes for five positions, and gave Mrs. Mick her choice of the five.  She also graduated magna cum laude from our alma mater.  And, our kids turned out all right, largely thanks to her.

These teachers were pretty miserable from the beginning, and my wife identified nine separate areas she wanted to discuss with them.  Surely, she thought, she could convince them to see reason.  Alas, no.  Long story short, they listened and literally didn't respond.  Sort of like today's (fill in the name of political party) adherents.  No one is interested in listening or thinking.

I will say this...there are people today who claim to want to have challenging conversations. I think that's shorthand for "I want you to listen to my grievances, grovel in abject misery, beg forgiveness and turn over $xx." I don't think they really want a challenging conversation.

[Mick]

And I believe in the power of honest open debate. If we can actually have that one day it would be nice.  I don’t mean the board.  I mean the country. 

I think it's very difficult to have a truly challenging debate, particularly when people have entrenched opinions and different life experiences and see things from different angles.

My youngest son was in a terrible third grade, team-taught by two "teachers" who genuinely didn't know what they were doing. As I've posted, my mother, mother-in-law and my wife were all teachers.  Mrs. Mick taught in the Palo Alto Unified School District.  She had her student teaching experiences with a Cupertino SD Teacher of the Year.  When PA Unified started to hire teachers again, they received 400 resumes for five positions, and gave Mrs. Mick her choice of the five.  She also graduated magna cum laude from our alma mater.  And, our kids turned out all right, largely thanks to her.

These teachers were pretty miserable from the beginning, and my wife identified nine separate areas she wanted to discuss with them.  Surely, she thought, she could convince them to see reason.  Alas, no.  Long story short, they listened and literally didn't respond.  Sort of like today's (fill in the name of political party) adherents.  No one is interested in listening or thinking.

I will say this...there are people today who claim to want to have challenging conversations. I think that's shorthand for "I want you to listen to my grievances, grovel in abject misery, beg forgiveness and turn over $xx." I don't think they really want a challenging conversation.