I saw this article on The Seven Habits of Highly Depolarizing People making the rounds on social media, and thought it worth sharing. I found interesting how many of the tips discussed by the author resonated with statements on our learning rubric. Notice how the points on “qualifying” and “specifying” (instead of generalizing) are reflected in the rubric’s advice about complex position-taking, just as the points on “doubt” are reflected in the rubric’s advice about self-reflection. The advice about taking counter-arguments seriously is also a point that I’ve tried to stress in class. So who knows? Maybe working on the Four Capabilities won’t just make you a better writer, but will also help depolarize our political culture, just as Washington’s Farewell Address would have wanted!