Your Opinions Don’t Define You
How One 10th Grade English Assignment Taught Me Everything About Politics
When I was a sophomore in high school, my English teacher, Ms. Collins gave our class an assignment that forever reshaped the way I approach political subjects. It completely shattered everything I thought I knew about forming a political opinion and debating that political opinion. An assignment so brilliant and so simple, that it could help us understand the polarized political climate of the modern age. It opened my eyes to the fundamental flaws of human nature.
The Debate
Walking into class that day I remember being particularly bored and disinterested. I spent most class periods staring out the window, wishing I was at home playing Call of Duty. But then, Ms. Collins announced what it was we were going to spend the next couple of weeks working on.
“Alright, class,” she began, “our next assignment is going to be a debate. We are going to debate a controversial political subject: the death penalty. We are going to spend the next few class periods in the library conducting research and developing arguments, then two weeks from now we will have a class-wide debate.”
Ms. Collins proceeded to go around the room, one at a time, and ask each student where they stood on The United States using capital punishment. No segway, no precursor, no time to mull it over, right there, on the spot, we had to make a decision. What’s funny is that nobody had any trouble doing this. There were no “um’s,” no hesitations. Nobody said, “Well, I’ve never really thought about it before.”
Each and every 16-year-old in the class was able to instantly form an opinion on this incredibly complex political issue that none of us knew anything about — myself included.
Yeah, I’m for the death penalty, I remember thinking. An eye for an eye.
We went around the room and Ms. Collins made a tally on the board of who was “against” and who was “for.” It was about 60 percent “against” and 40 percent “for.”
She split the room in two.
Big mistake.
I remember my buddy leaned over to me, “I can’t believe how many people are afraid of the death penalty, what a bunch of idiots.”
One of the girls on the other side of the room heard him. “The death penalty is sick and wrong!” she shouted. “It’s cruel and unusual punishment.”
“What do you mean?” he shot back. “If someone murders a person in cold blood they deserve to die, simple as that.”
The room erupted.
Both sides started shouting back and forth. Both sides started calling each other dummies, morons, and worse. Things escalated quickly. Ms. Collins was horrified.
Opposing Sides
All it took to incite a heated argument on the verge of violence was to take a room full of hormonal teenagers, introduce a polarizing topic, and split the room into two sides. This effectively created an “Us vs Them” mentality.
The best part is that nobody knew what the f**k they were talking about. You think anyone in that room had spent time reading about the pros and cons of the death penalty? Nobody was backing up their arguments with anything of substance. We hadn’t even been prompted to start debating yet. What I learned that day is that you can form an opinion, and within seconds, it will harden into concrete. Once that opinion is formed, it becomes a piece of your identity. When someone disagrees with an opinion of yours, it’s a personal attack. The more charged the issue, the more severe the attack.
Eventually, Ms. Collins corralled the class into order. We went to the library and conducted our research. Then, two weeks later it was the day of the debate. Everyone was pumped. Everyone was jumping at the bit to trash anyone who disagreed with them. Everyone had research-backed points that they were prepared to deliver.
The Real Assignment
The debate was held in a civilized manner. Only one person could talk at a time. I’d never seen so much engagement in a high school class before. Everyone participated. Everyone made solid points and intelligent remarks. For the entire hour-long debate, Ms. Collins barely spoke.
The debate ended and everyone returned to their seats.
“Alright, class, good job. It’s time for your next assignment.”
Next assignment? Who said anything about a next assignment?
“You will now write a ten-page argumentative research paper on the death penalty. But there’s a catch. If you are in support of the death penalty, your paper must argue against the use of it. And if you are against the death penalty, your paper must argue for the use of it. This paper will account for forty percent of your final grade. You are dismissed.”
My jaw dropped. Outrage and confusion consumed the class. I just spent the past two weeks researching reasons why the death penalty should be used, reading articles that supported it, developing arguments that supported it. Now she expected me to just turn around and write a paper contradicting everything I’d learned? It wasn’t going to be possible.
The Paper
I walked into Ms. Collins’ classroom and handed her my paper. Turns out it had been a lot easier than I thought. For every valid reason to support the death penalty, there was an equally valid reason out there to not support it. During the debate, I hadn’t really been listening to the arguments my classmates had made. I just spent that time worrying about the next thing I was going to say. When I sat down to write this paper I was forced to listen to the other side.
I was forced to become the other side.
After I handed her the paper she said, “Hey, JP, I’m curious. During the debate, you were one of the people who argued the most emphatically for the use of the death penalty. Now that it’s all said and done, where do you stand? Do you still support it? Or have you changed your mind?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know,” I said. “It’s a lot more complicated than I thought.”
She smiled and nodded. “I always knew you were one of the smart ones.”
Our country is more polarized than it has ever been. A big reason for that is because people are unwilling to look at things from a different perspective, unwilling to step into another’s shoes.
If you hold a strong stance on a political issue, I dare you to spend some time researching the other side of the coin. I dare you to read multiple articles, written by people who are smarter than you, about why your stance on a political issue is the wrong one. You might be surprised what you find.
© Jean-Paul Cote 2021
