Learning How to Be Wrong
WE MADE THIS POLITICAL interviews William Deresiewicz LIVE on Friday, July 31 at 4pm ET
Join us live as we welcome author and cultural critic William Deresiewicz for a conversation about citizenship, education, and the overlooked civic skill of learning how to be wrong.
In his essay “Colleges, Maybe Try Teaching!”, Bill talks how we educate people for citizenship. It’s not what you might expect—literature plays as much as role as the founding documents, because it helps people tolerate ambiguity and disagreement.
We’ll talk to Bill about his citizen vs. activist distinction, his argument that learning how to be wrong is one of the core civic virtues (and one that current educational approaches overlook), and his long-standing belief that solitude is key to real leadership.
Please join us with your comments and questions this Friday, July 31 at 4pm ET.
 | A guest post by
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I loved this discussion, and especially the affirmation of what gets lost in online teaching, as well as the undeniable benefits of the in-classroom experience. In 2022, I took a Poetry 101 class at a writers’ center around the corner from my apartment in San Francisco. After years of grueling online courses and meetings, this was my first experience being back in a real classroom with warm bodies. We had to mask up, but all the same what I noticed right away was how much more willing people were to express divergent views and engage in serious back-and-forth than they generally were online. As a writer, I found 2020-2022 a very tough time in which the social media bubble with my arty left milieu seemed to enforce a disturbing pack mentality in which you felt you’d be called out just for sitting on the sidelines keeping your own counsel. That first in-person experience back in a proper classroom started building my courage up again. Thanks, @William Deresiewicz, as always!