Differing Opinions

Last week, my teachers taught a lesson on writing opinion sentences. The students were writing about their favorite season which means there is no right or wrong answer.

I have watched the Republican National Convention and the Democrat National Convention where many people have many different opinions. Even on Facebook, people are sharing their opinions. But what shocks me is how some of the people who don’t agree with the poster may attack that person for having a difference of opinion.

I don’t want my students to think that they can’t have their own opinion or be afraid to have an opinion.

Teaching tolerance and acceptance of people who have differing opinions is just as important as having an opinion.

It is okay to try to share why you have that opinion and maybe persuade someone else to change their opinion but they may not ever change it and that is okay. My mother would always say that “we need to agree to disagree.” That doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends or talk about other things just because we don’t agree on a specific topic.

We need to teach students how to act when someone has a different opinion and how opinions have no wrong or right answers. Many opinions depend on how we feel or how something makes us feel. Since we all can’t feel the same way, we will all have different opinions or reasons why we feel a certain way.

We need to teach students to weigh the facts in order to have an informed opinion and not just follow what everyone else says.

I feel like society sometimes is trying to get everyone to agree on the same things and that will never happen. I don’t feel that is what we need to be a better world. It is these differing opinions that actually make the world a better place because we all see things from different perspectives.

How do you teach students about opinions? Please share.