Category Archives: Irenicism

blackboard discussion used to avoid conflict

My friend Sarah sent me this link to Bedford St. Martin’s LORE: An E-Journal for Teachers of Writing. The article’s author starts: Classroom discussion tends to drift off–topic no matter how much the instructor tries to control the conversation. Usually … Continue reading

Posted in Irenicism, Teaching Composition | 1 Comment

education as a tool of dominant culture, or, alteratively, how we use education to quell the rebelliousness within us

I’m beginning to think that, throughout time, education has been used to actually squelch rebelliousness and societal change, not to promote it, as humanists and liberal arts proponents might argue. Of course, education is not a totalitarian system meant to … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Irenicism | 1 Comment

Graff’s discussion of Tannen

I’m borrowing Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind by Gerald Graff, from Sara Jameson, who recommended that I read Chapter 4: “Two Cheers for the Argument Culture.” In this chapter, Graff discusses Deborah Tannen’s book … Continue reading

Posted in Agonism in Display, Irenicism | Leave a comment

thesis “proposal” for MAWG

Cross-posted on MAWG: Polemics and Irenics in Argument – it’s a start? In her essay “The Womanization of Rhetoric,“ Sally Miller Gearhart writes that she believes “that any intent to persuade is an act of violence“ because the persuader has … Continue reading

Posted in Agonism in Display, Brainstorming, Collage, Gender, Hyptertexts, Irenicism, Polyphony, Thesis work, Voice, Walter Ong | 4 Comments