Dork

• Dialogue is collaborative: two or more sides work together toward common understanding.
  • Debate is oppositional: two sides oppose each other and attempt to prove each other wrong.

• In dialogue, finding common ground is the goal.
  • In debate, winning is the goal.

• In dialogue, one listens to the other side(s) in order to understand, find meaning and find agreement.
  • In debate, one listens to the other side in order to find flaws and to counter its arguments.

• Dialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participants point of view.
  • Debate affirms a participant's own point of view.

• Dialogue reveals assumptions for re-evaluation.
  • Debate defends assumptions as truth.

• Dialogue causes introspection on ones own position.
  • Debate causes critique of the other position.

• Dialogue opens the possibility of reaching a better solution than any of the original solutions.
  • Debate defends one's own positions as the best solution and excludes other solutions.

• Dialogue creates an open-minded attitude: an openness to being wrong and an openness to change.
  • Debate creates a close-minded attitude, a determination to be right.

• In dialogue, one submits ones best thinking, knowing that other people's reflections will help improve it rather than destroy it.
  • In debate, one submits one's best thinking and defends it against challenge to show that it is right.

• Dialogue calls for temporarily suspending one's beliefs.
  • Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefs.

• In dialogue, one searches for basic agreements.
  • In debate, one searches for glaring differences.

• In dialogue one searches for strengths in the other positions.
  • In debate one searches for flaws and weaknesses in the other position.

• Dialogue involves a real concern for the other person and seeks to not alienate or offend.
  • Debate involves a countering of the other position without focusing on feelings or relationship and often belittles or deprecates the other person.

• Dialogue assumes that many people have pieces of the answer and that together they can put them into a workable solution.
  • Debate assumes that there is a right answer and that someone has it.

• Dialogue remains open-ended.
  • Debate implies a conclusion.

Adapted from a paper prepared by Shelley Berman, which was based on discussions of the Dialogue Group of the Boston Chapter of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR).

ATRE

Sharing with you some unforgettable photographs from all over the world.

1957. The first day of Dorothy Counts at the Harry Harding High School in the United States . Counts was one of the first black students admitted in the school, and she was no longer able to stand the harassments after 4 days.

January 12, 1960. A second before the Japanese Socialist Party leader Asanuma was murdered by an opponent student.

1963. Thich Quang Duc, the Buddhist priest in Southern Vietnam , burns himself to death protesting the government’s torture policy against priests. Thich Quang Dug never made a sound or moved while he was burning.

1962. A soldier shot by a sniper hangs onto a priest in his last moments.

1965. A mom and her children try to cross the river in South Vietnam in an attempt to run away from the American bombs.

1966. U.S. troops in South Vietnam are dragging a dead Vietkong soldier.

February 1, 1968. South Vietnam police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan shots a young man, whom he suspects to be a Viet Kong soldier.

1973. A few seconds before Chile ’s elected president Salvador Allende is dead during the coup.

1975. A woman and a girl falling down after the fire escape collapses.

1980. A kid in Uganda about to die of hunger, and a missionaire.

February 23, 1981. Colonel Molina ve military police seizes the Parliament building in Spain. The photographer did not expect the scene, and hid the films in his shoe.

1982. Palestinian refugees murdered in Beirut , Lebanon.

1987. A mother in South Korea apologizes and asks for forgiveness for his son who was arrested after attending a protest. He was protesting the alleged manipulations in the general elections.

1989. A young man in China stands before the tanks during protests for democratic reforms.

1992. A mother in Somalia holds the body of her child who died of hunger.

1994. A man who was tortured by the soldiers since he was suspected to have spoken with the Tutsi rebels.

1996. Kids who are shocked by the civil war in Angola.

2001. An Afghani refugee kid’s body is being prepared for the funeral in Pakistan.

2002. Soldiers and villagers in IRan are digging graves for the victims of the earthquake. A kid holds his father’s pants before he is buried.

2003. An Iraqi prisoner of war tries to calm down his child.

Disclaimer: These images are not origin from the author of this website. They are from forward mails. If you know the owners of them, please let us know. We will have them insert.

ATRE

Math as delivered by the hapless student

A former student, perhaps sensing a need for a counterweight to my essay on why math is good for you, sent me these answers to math problems for students for whom motivation probably isn't enough (though they don't lack creativity.) Enjoy.