Arguing

I'm learning how to argue. Most of my family is probably rolling on the floor laughing hysterically at this point. I'm sure none of them think I need to learn how to argue........in fact, they likely think I've had a lot of practice and could teach a class on that myself. (I love you all, too!)

I've started another online course called “Think Again – How To Reason And Argue”. And it's not really about arguing in the the sense of having a disagreement. It's about how to sway people to your point of view, or how to recognize when someone is doing that to you – think used car salesmen, or politicians. Or your teenagers.

As I listened to the first lecture last week, all I could think was that I wish I'd been able to take this course twenty years ago! My kids are so close together in age, I spent three and a half long years with three teenagers in the house. I was greatly out-numbered.....and then one of them decided to go into Speech & Debate. Ugh! Discussions with teenagers are always a challenge. But when one's been taught how to diffuse and refute every type of argument, it's very hard to win! Luckily, I could usually see through the situation and get us back on track – the words “this is NOT a debate!” were heard more than once.

Even as a little kid, I was spunky and wasn't afraid to stand up for myself within the family. That probably stemmed from being the only girl on Dad's side of the family, as well as being so much younger than my cousins. On Mom's side, one of her brothers just delighted in picking on me. He worked on the pipeline, so I didn't see him often. And because I didn't, I wasn't comfortable coming back at him when he picked on me. It did my heart good to see my oldest one get right back in his face the first time he picked on her – he got quite a kick out of her response. But I just took his teasing in silence.

My uncle acts so much like my Grandad did – Grandad was a teaser, too. But Grandad didn't intimidate me......well, not unless he started reaching for his belt. Then I knew I'd better change directions fast. And no, he never used it on any of the grandkids as far as I know. But the threat was all he ever needed. So when he would tease, he was okay if you shot a response back at him. Even though I was only 13 when we lost him, I remember clearly his telling me that I should grow up to be a lawyer.

I love and appreciate my high school. I know we got an amazing education there, with a lot of really outstanding teachers. But I always regretted not being able to go to a larger school with a more diverse curriculum. I thought being involved in Speech & Debate would be great. My school was just too small to be able to offer a lot of electives. We had business classes, home ec, and industrial arts. That was about it as far as non-core courses. I would have loved foreign language, art, drama.

Even when I went to college, I got an associate degree. So I had four semesters to get all my core courses done and very little room for electives. My biggest disappointment was talking my way into a journalism class, then having to drop it because is conflicted with one of my required courses. Bummer.

Mom commented the other day that I'm choosing “weird stuff” to study. Maybe. Or maybe I'm just going back and getting those things I didn't get from high school and college. Either way, I'm enjoying myself. And if I get to the point I'm not enjoying myself, I can walk away. That's the nice thing about having this site with the courses for free – I'm not investing anything but my time. And maybe I'll learn something in the process.