Becaue Y'all Love It When I Tell You How We Do It Over in the Communication Department

Some of what Berlin discusses in the last few chapters of Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures reminds me of a communication scholar named Roderick Hart. In addition to some really interesting work about rhetoric and political communication, Hart has had a few things to say about teaching.

Most of the similarities between Berlin and Hart come from their concern with democracy and power. In an essay called “Why Communication?” Hart (1993) delivered one of the most quotable little rationales for a career as a communication teacher I’ve ever heard. He wrote that communication teachers understand that “freedom goes to the articulate” (p. 101). In other words, “nobody should be deprived of power, security, or beauty, simply because they cannot share their ideas with others or vent their feelings in a socially useful way” (p. 102). Berlin’s (1996) philosophy is similar, but perhaps more critical. He wrote, “without language to name our experience, we inevitably become instruments of the language of others” (p. 110). In short, although these scholars are from different disciplines, Berlin’s comments are incredibly applicable to the teaching of communication, and Hart’s comments seem equally relevant to teaching composition

Berlin and Hart both advocate equipping students with the necessary critical tools for actively participating in the own government. In a book chapter titled “Teaching Persuasion” Hart adopts what he calls a “consumerist” approach to teaching the subject. The task of the consumerist is to alert students the all-pervading attempts of commerce, government, etc. to influence and persuade individuals. My own personal experience confirms that this approach excites most students. Importantly, I feel like Berlin (1996) takes the idea one step beyond Hart’s ideal classroom when he writes that a teacher ought to “supply students with heuristic strategies for decoding their characteristic ways of representing the world” (p. 111). In other words, whereas Hart asks students to look at the ways others are attempting to exert control and influence of them, Berlin asks students to consider the way they might be exerting control and influence over others.

Ever since I first read Hart, I’ve used his ideas in my Philosophy of Teaching statement. In many ways, I think I could have been using Berlin to accomplish the same end.