Throughout the course, then, we will be grappling (internally as individuals and in discussions) with some complex, often emotionally charged, topics. We all need to take responsibility for maintaining a learning environment in which people feel challenged, but not threatened. I hope that we can develop the level of respect and trust necessary to take risks in sharing perspectives, recognizing that it is only through such sharing that we can all make progress in better understanding our field and the issues that characterize it.

Following are some guidelines for our interactions about the course content and topics related to it:

1. Remember that text-based communication lacks the non-verbal clues we get in face-to-face conversations. A comment made with a smile can signal a much different meaning than the same words without the smile. Before sending a message intended to communicate your passionate, heartfelt opinion on a topic, ask yourself, "Will these words alone communicate the message I want to send? Is there a possibility for misunderstanding my tone? Might the readers feel attacked or "disrespected."
2. My father used to say, "It's not right to say that everyone has a right to his or her opinion. Everyone has a right to an informed opinion." Before posting a message to a discussion forum, ask yourself whether you've provided support for your ideas. Tie your opinion to your personal experience or to material you've read for this or other classes. For example, it won't take us very far if you say, "I'm sick of the way this author keeps bashing schooling." Instead, tell us where, specifically, you think the author is wrong in his or her argument and what evidence you have that calls his or her conclusions into question.
3. When responding to the ideas posted by classmates, make sure you distinguish between the person and idea in your response. Posting something like, "You only care about maintaining your own power and privilege" is an unacceptable attack on a person, whereas a statement such as "The evidence I've seen indicates that those government policies have contributed to an increasing gap between the rich and the poor" focuses on an idea, rather than the person stating the idea.
4. Maintaining respectful interactions doesn't mean that we need to be accepting of everyone's opinion as equally valid. We will all have different opinions based on our knowledge, experiences, values, and beliefs about how the world works. It won't be much of a stimulus to intellectual growth if we do nothing more than reinforce each other for the ideas we already have, rather than challenging those ideas that we think are misguided or poorly thought through. A good way to challenge a post you disagree with is to ask for further clarification or support for the idea stated: What have you read that supports that idea? Is that the way it happens in your practice as an educator? Have you thought about this implication of your idea? What about this different experience that I had? etc. We should feel free to challenge each other, but also to recognize our responsibility to "listen" to others' perspectives and consider them thoughtfully.

Even with the best of intentions, discussions can get "overheated." What we don't want is a real "melt down." If at any point in the course you are feeling like an individual (including me) has not interacted appropriately, send me a private e-mail and I will work to resolve the situation. Often, other class members will jump in and try to smooth things over. Working together, we can usually "fix" discussions that have gone astray. The best solution, of course, is to keep problems from developing in the first place.