Chaska Middle School East teacher Andrew Waller spends a lot of time in the classroom to teach students where to find information and how to analyze it for biases. (Jerry Holt / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
A respectful conversation in class, said Anderson, implies a way to talk about personal experience. He encourages students to ask questions with real interest, in order to obtain a perspective.
“We say that at the beginning, you could leave the course or the subject never changing anything,” she said, “but we think you will have a more in-depth understanding of the reason why your comrade class might feel different from you. “
Waller’s lesson on Chaska’s perspective included a series of “ambiguous images” – the types of drawings that can be interpreted to show different things, depending on how you look at them.
At a table, a group of girls spent several minutes trying to help a classmate to see the face of an old woman in a black and white drawing who can also be seen to represent a young woman turning away.
“Ok, wow,” said the girl finally. “I see it! I can see it in both directions.
In January, the Center for Youth Voice welcomed the 71st annual young people from the government, where more than 1,400 students from the whole state assumed roles of legislators, lobbyists, lawyers, judges, judges and judges and judges and judges and judges and judges and judges and judges of journalists to spend four days leading a model of model government.