On October 21st, the Norton Center hosted its first Let’s Talk session in Founders. Lasting for an hour, the session consisted of thoughtful discussion on recent and relevant world events. Several students as well as multiple faculty members eagerly participated in respectful discourse.
Kiki Ribeiro, a Norton Center intern and student organizer and leader of the Let’s Talk discussions, explained the goal she hopes to achieve by creating these discussions. “For these Let’s Talk sessions, my goal is to bring open dialogue a bit more to campus. This includes giving students the opportunity to learn and practice skills about hearing opinions that aren’t similar to theirs, listening to people’s reasoning behind their opinions, and approaching it from an empathetic standpoint.” By fostering this understanding and mutual respect, Kiki believes that these sessions will not only strengthen our community but also help people feel like they have the ability to be more opinionated and pursue more thoughtful conversations.
As easy as it is to say that the Loomis campus should engage in more thoughtful discourse, discussion of political issues is difficult and not everybody believes they belong on campus. However, for the Loomis community to grow, Kiki believes that having these discussions are paramount.
“I understand right now, we’re in a really unique time because our political landscape is very polarized, and I wish it wasn’t like that. But just because it’s polarized doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about it because ignoring it and not talking about it is how polarization grows. It’s how it continues to separate people. And I don’t think that these are events… that should be separating people. I think that if in the future we want to solve things like this, then we have to learn how to come together.”
Mr. Kammrath, the director of the Norton Center for the Common Good explained how these events could be beneficial for students from an educator’s standpoint. “You’re at an age where you’re forming your opinions on who you want to be and what you believe in, and a big piece of that is going to be education, on what’s happening in the world currently and how you fit into it. These talks try to create educated citizens, people who are a little bit more in the know, because we want you to have that idea of ‘I understand the world and I can help’.”
During the discussion, one of the students revealed that the word “politics” or anything related scares them from discussions. When asked what advice he would give to students who are intimidated by politics, or who want to learn more but don’t know where to start, Mr. Kammrath says, “I would say come [to these discussions] to just listen. And if you’re sitting there feeling like, okay, I feel comfortable with what’s going on and I don’t necessarily have to participate, I think that’s step one. So I would just really encourage [students] to stop by at any event, to encourage people to show up and just give it a try.”
