Ethos in the Rhetoric Course
I'm beginning to think that a rhetoric class must spend more attention to ethos, especially the actually cultivation of ethical behavior and attitudes within the students to strengthen their ethos when speaking, writing. In other words, if everyone in the class knows you're not a nice guy, and then you speak/write about values such as community, respect, etc., then the rhetoric is a sham. But if I'm correct, then I'm also implying character development instruction, which seems so ... weird.
Can we teach (I'm not asking permission or legislative authority) character as ethos? Can we teach students that they need to examine their own value system before they can make any argument, because their audience will see through their words and mannerisms?
In Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, he claims we can foretell some events instantaneously because of cues or clues -- like predicting which marriage relationships will fail within n years because of 30 seconds of seeing the partners bicker, toss around sarcastic remarks, etc. If he's right (and that's a terrible summary of his book), then an audience can determine through social hints whether the rhetor is sincere, etc., immediately. Of course, sometimes we know this -- every time I hear Mitch McConnell talk, I know he's insincere when he argues for jobs or security, etc. Every time I see the faces of flag-waving white patriots who want to eliminate brown people from the universe, I know that their patriotism is empty and only a substitute [not quite apophesis, but something similar] for their fear and hate.
But what about students? What if a student is just immature, mean, spiteful, selfish (add other words to describe many some a few adolescents) and still tries to argue in class or in a project to build community or influence the public? If the student's ethos is in fact terrible, do I need to do something about that? Not call to repentance, not suggest counseling (or?), and not embarrass in front of the class. But perhaps add reflection and character-building writing projects to at least examine one's ethos? Perhaps to be aware of how one's self-centeredness can be read/seen by others and thus negating any word choice and writing structure?
What would Plato do peripatetically? Teach his boys [sic] that they had to be moral?
In fact, he would. But can we?
 |
| Plato’s Academy mosaic — from the Villa of T. Siminius Stephanus in Pompeii. |
Twitter @comstone
