This chapter was a nice way to sort of wrap up and recap
what we have been working at all semester. The overall point I took away from this section was that "communication ethics is the call to learn about differing views" (213). I particularly liked the focus on
difference and a commitment to learning in this section, which page 227 talks a lot about, because
throughout the semester I have maintained my opinion that learning is one of
the most important aspect of communication and working ethically through
difference. This chapter explains the importance of being able and willing to recognize
difference and what needs to be done and learned to move through it. I think we
have faced this type of dilemma in class discussions. Sometimes people did not
agree and it became somewhat obvious, but more often than not students would be
able to recognize what the differences in their contexts or opinions were and
would direct questions at one another. I think this shows our willingness to
learn about one another and show more empathy or acceptance of differences. The
point of communication, in my opinion, is to be able to interact with others,
and others will always have some differences and there must be an exchange of
ideas and an aspect of learning to have effective communication.
These ideas also relate to ethics because we often came
across topics like race in class that can be difficult to discuss and
recognizing different backgrounds, races, and opinions helped us to interact in
ways where people could share their thoughts but still recognized what would be
acceptable in a multicultural classroom setting. If we have the common good of
having an effective discussion and enhancing our education, we will communicate
better because of it. This ties into difference as well because even though a
person’s idea of what the good is may differ from another, if there is a shared
good or desire to have that conversation and willingness to hear someone else
out, we can learn about those goods of the other. I also really liked that this
book encouraged questions because they are inherent to learning, and this
chapter really summarized these ideas of learning in a way that made me
recognize how well our class now communicates.
Your first quote used about ethics being the reason that people learn about differing views was really right on. If people don't want to learn, then they will continue to be stuck, and the relationship can't grow. It would remain stagnant with both parties not really caring about the other. The only way the relationship could go would be downwards. Learning is a commitment, it needs to be the main focus, otherwise a person might only help to make a conversation beneficial with half of their hearts.
ReplyDeleteRace and class is a perfect and obvious example of this .For years cultures have been trying to understand others. Even when I think of Michelle Obama touching the queen's back on accident, I think of this. Clearly the queen was very understanding to our american culture. So, this really shows that even though something might not be normal to one group, it should still be understood.