Change my mind

What's the cure for systematic prejudice? How do you change a mind that believes it's made up already, and doesn't wish to change at all? That's been on my mind for years, but especially just recently. The only thing I've ever found that worked, even imperfectly, was face-to-face, in-person Socratic classroom or similar informal discussion hosted by a skilled teacher and mentor that has the stage presence and moral authority to guide discussion and testimony, even that which is hard to hear, experiencing what other people have to say and being guided intellectually and emotionally to put yourself in their shoes. Where have I experienced anything like this? In high school, when I had some very good teachers; in some (not all) Christian churches, and at meetings of other religions; but most frequently in liberal arts classes and related college activities with my students and faculty and teaching staff colleagues for the thirty-two years I've been involved in American education. If you want to live in a better world, you need to change minds. A lot of people simply don't change their minds when presented with new, better ideas. But that's what good educators do. We change minds. It's not easy. I wish it was, but it isn't. And it only works some of the time. But what kind of a world would we live in if it had never worked at all, ever, for all of history? We'd all be at each other's throats, sitting on each other's necks, one against one, group against group, clan against clan, nation against nation, for all history, whenever we got the chance. I tell my Maine students, many of whom are Franco-American, that when the Klan first organized in Maine in the 1920s it was to get rid of them. Think about that! Just because you think you're in the privileged group now doesn't mean it was always that way, nor will it always be that way. Better start treating people the way you'd like to be treated. And be willing to change your mind. And come fall, vote for a better world, one that supports mind-changing education. It's our only hope.