No Time Like the Present: Insert Rhetoric
One of the best reasons for teaching is watching students transform, empowered with skills and knowledge that they did not realize existed. Introducing students to studies of rhetoric and oration has never failed to capture the best in every student. The right combination of wit and wisdom can make every student a superhero.Who doesn't wish to do the right thing, to take the best stance, to have the perfect "comeback"? Maybe I was alone wishing I had been cool and collected with clever remarks, the dramatic pause followed by cheers as I walked away. Usually the clever words lay in repose until the moment had passed and they would have stayed tucked away in my brain had I not been exposed to oration and rhetoric. When I was a student, a chapter on Cicero in a textbook created by an enthusiastic history teacher captured my attention. Explained in simple terms, Cicero's treatise on oration was a manual for improving democracy through the powers of persuasion. Thi...