Aidan Stone

Mrs. Martin

Critical discourse

12-5-2017

Final Paper

I started looking into why people think differently. The background causes that might

affect how people see the world. The more I dug into the hows and the whys I started to connect

what I was learning to the current problems in our country today.

The problem is we are no longer talking to each other any type of discussion just

devolves into a shouting match to see who is morally superior. A debate now a days is just two

sides trying to get the moral high ground. The true actual reasons for disagreement has been lost

under all of the moral grandstanding. I hope that my proposed class will help solve this problem

I have worked at my towns local Price Chopper for nearly two years. Over that time I

had have to work with a lot of different people. They all have different backgrounds and beliefs

and I do not agree with with all of them, but I still need to work with them. With my time

working I have learned how to work with people I agree with and people I do not. These skills

are the foundation of my proposed class. In my class I hope to teach new students how to

cooperate with other people. One of the big problems I hear from My coworkers at Price Chopper is

that they do not like one of the other people that they have to work with. This lack of cooperation

eventually will lead to one of the two people quitting. The running away from ones problems doesnt

help anything. If the person gets a new job and then meets another person who they do not like what will

they do then. They have not learned how to deal with people and there is only so many jobs out there.

Sooner or later the employers will look at the person and ask why they have had so many jobs in so little
time. The employers will see this as a sign of lack of commitment which will hurt the chances of the

person getting a job.

I believe this divide among people has always been here but I think it has gotten worse over the

past ten years or so. A Pew research poll found that after Barack Obama became president of the United

States, Overall, more Republicans than Democrats see the opposing partys policies as a threat

and the differences are even greater when ideology is taken into account. Fully 66% of

consistently conservative Republicans think the Democrats policies threaten the nations well-

being. By comparison, half (50%) of consistently liberal Democrats say Republican policies

jeopardize the nations well-being. The morality of the left focuses more on the equality and

independent and republicans tend to be more loyalty minded based on Jonathan Haidt work on a

Tedx. This general distrust of people with different views has lead to more and more divide

among the American populace. Over time Both sides have become more apathetic to the other

sides point of view. This has also helped to add to the distrust of people that think differently.

You can also see in a more recent example in our new president Donald Trump. During his first

year as president the divide among both of the political parties. As the left has spent this entire

time attacking everything that President Trump has done instead of trying to work with him to

get things done, and the right has been to busy trying to defend President trump to really work on

the promises that got them into office in the first place.

This divide has been around for a long time before President Trump and the politics of

modern america. This divide among people has been around for as long as there been different

people. One of the earliest examples of this is religion, when you get to the basic message that

most of the major religious teaching teach is do good: dont lie, cheat, or steal, be nice to those

around you, be humble, and be pious. But when you take a step back and look at a lot of the
conflict in the past the root of it is probably two different religious groups. Instead of looking at

each others similarities they focused only on their differences.

A good example of what could happen if A person takes the time to look into different

teaches and apply what they learn to what they already know, The Dalai Lama describes how

he has encountered practitioners of other religions, including Christians, Muslims, Jains, and

Jews, and how he has participated in non-Buddhist religious rituals. In a modern country

religious freedom has helped lower the level of religious divide among most people you live

there. There is still room for improvement.

We need to worry about this lack of communication because of the ramifications it could

have on the future generations of Americans. It is an important skill to be able to respectfully

talk to about differing ideas to other people. If the divide among people gets to big it could lead

to a civil war between the two sides. Though I do not think it will get that bad I wouldnt rule

out the possibility of that happening later on down the road especially if the far sides of the

political spectrum continues to become increasingly violent and totalitarian. I think that it is

going to take time and a lot of effort to try and lesson the divide, I do not think it will completely

go away, as long as there are different people there will be this divide, but I do believe that if we

can work to understand why other people may think differently than us then I think that will go a

long way of helping to bring some peace back to America.

The effects of this divide can be most clearly seen in the academic world. We hear all the

time in the news that some new riot or protest has broke out among the student population

because someone who they do not agree with is giving a talk. The demographics of academia

has become more and more uniform. The majority of the people who go to college or work in

education think very liberally and attack those who dare to think differently than the status quo.
I personally have always found this a little funny because these are the people who also believe

that the more diverse a group the better and yet they themselves are not diverse at all. This has

lead to an us vs them mentality that has only deepened the divide in America.

Most of the solutions to bridging the great divide in America try to fix the problem with

trying to change the current generation. They try to talk to adult who have already become set in

what they believe making it a lot harder and not as successful as it could be. My solution will try

and target the younger generations before they can become narrow minded about they deem as

right. Another problem with other attempts to bridge the divide is that not all sides want to talk

to each other. This makes it hard to hash out the differences in people and work towards a better

compromise. Since my class will be for a grade it will force the students to work together on

projects and other assignments. This will help keep the students talking to each other and

working their differences out. The hope is that they can use the skill learned in the class and

apply that to their classes in college or other secondary education and in the workforce outside

the school system.

I want this class to help teach students the basic environmental factors that go into how

people can come up with differing ways of thought. Everyone can see that the divide among us

has grown vast in the past ten years, I am offering a solutions that promises to lessen the divide.

I know that there will always be a divide as long as humans have free will. I hope that despite

this we will learn how to at least understand why other people think the way they do. In my

research I learned that there are many different reasons to why people may come up with

differing beliefs like gender and race but there are similarities and that is what is important to

understand. I want to teach students to acknowledge other people's differences because they are

make us individuals but find similarities that help bring everyone together as Americans.
 I want to create a high school level class that brings psychology and politics to help

understand why people think differently from one and other. The class with be mainly project /

presentation oriented with little to no written tests. I also will create an overarching project like

game. The students will be put into groups of about three to four and be but in charge of a large

group of different people. Then either once a week or once a month the teacher will give out a

scenario for the students to work through. Depending on how the group handles the scenario

will affect the group of people and will be awarded points which then will turn into a grade.

This idea came about after I was done working on my perspective research. I learned that

there are lots of things that go into why people think the way they do. I then apply what I

learned to what was going on around me. If people could understand why people may not agree

with them then they could work towards making compromises that actually get things done for

everyone. That is what my class is about teaching kids that it is ok to one think differently, two

understand that their are other ways of thinking about thing, and three how to work with people

that they might not agree with.

A major challenge that my class will have to overcome is getting accepted by the public

school system. I hope that I can start by having my class work in an online setting then it getting

picked up by the public schools. An online classroom is A virtual classroom is a classroom that

allows participants to communicate with one another, view videos, and engage with resources.

I will have to teach teachers about my class so I can start getting the class out there and they can

help improve the lesson plans. Then hopefully other schools will pick up on the class and offer it.

One thing I would need to make is the over project. That will probably take the most amount of

time because I need to make sure it works the way it should and be fun for the students. Social

media will be very import to connect the teachers of my class to one and other and also to get the
word out about my class and what it is about. If the teachers can use social media in the class to

help teach the students that will also be very helpful as well.

It will be hard to measure my classes impact on the social divide in America but I believe

that group polling of people who have taken the class will help gage how well the class prepared

them to handle a real work environment. I would use that new poll data to improve my

curriculum and my class structure. Student review and teacher feedback would be the most

valuable feedback I could get. Overtime I hope I could get better and better at creating plans and

use the feedback to better the simulation that goes with the class as well. After more of my

classes graduate I think we will be able see more of an improvement in bridging the divide in

America.

With my research I know I can create a helpful class that will bring together reason and

emotion into understanding why people think differently. With my feedback from asking

students in my high school and I am confident that the class will be well accepted by the student

populace. This is based on a survey I gave to sophomore and freshman so I can improve my

ideas and my class. I look forward to seeing if I can get my class implemented and seeing if I

can help bring people together.

Work Cited
Ferriman, J.

Ferriman, Justin. "Characteristics Of A Virtual Classroom - Learndash." LearnDash. N. p., 2013.

Web. 20 Dec. 2017.

The moral roots of liberals and conservatives - Jonathan Haidt

"The Moral Roots Of Liberals And Conservatives - Jonathan Haidt." YouTube. N. p., 2017. Web.
20 Dec. 2017.

Magazine, U.

Magazine, UU. "Do All Religions Share A Common Thread?." UU World Magazine. N. p.,
2010. Web. 16 Dec. 2017.

Political Polarization in the American Public

"Political Polarization In The American Public." Pew Research Center for the People and the
Press. N. p., 2014. Web. 16 Dec. 2017.