by: Emaan Ehtasham
As Tower Hill students walked into the theater Monday night for the first forum of the year, they were ready for an hour of productive conversation across political beliefs between two professionals brought in by our forum council. As we navigate this election season, the school encourages us, as articulated in Ms. Baker's October 4th Weathervane, to honor the values of individuals we may hold differing beliefs from and to share our views in a way that is respectful.
By holding this forum between Tiffany Cross, previously a liaison to President Obama’s administration, and Todd Buchholz, a former economic advisor to the President George H. W. Bush administration, Ms. Baker and the forum council hoped to “model the values we seek to promote by talking across the aisle on the stage,” as expressed in the Weathervane.
However, the forum that students witnessed did not represent the aforementioned values.
Ms. Cross and Mr. Buchholz started out the evening fairly cordial, but when the conversation shifted to individual ideology, a more aggressive tone emerged. The opposing beliefs the speakers held came to the forefront of the evening, producing a contentious debate rather than the anticipated productive discussion.
Talking over each other, refusing to compromise, and having to be cut-off by adult intervention had the students murmuring and giggling with their neighbors, confirming they were all witnessing the same behavior.
The recording equipment suffered an issue at the beginning of the forum. This video picks up the conversation after Mr. Buchholz had described "typical" Democrat and Republican voters.
Molly Hurst (‘26), head of the forum council, established, “The intention was to show how two different sides can work together productively.” However, she then admitted, “It was a conversation that shouldn't have been in that setting - it's fine that it happened, but for our purposes, it was antithetical.”
While there were admittedly problematic moments, there was still much to be learned from this discourse.
Priya Raju (‘25) recognizes the value of the conversation held, especially in the context of the many assemblies we get to experience in the Upper School. “Normally, social justice assemblies feel idealistic, but this was more real,” she said. Priya appreciated how the genuine passion for the topic at hand engaged the audience. “With the significant opposing sides, they highlighted a kind of base to jump off of in terms of having these kinds of conversations.”
Furthermore, Molly expressed similar contentment with the outcomes of the forum. “We still got something out of the experience," she said. "It was the most successful forum I’ve experienced, and I’ve had so many people approach me wanting to join the forum council. I have never seen that much interest in a forum.”
The forum has created a space in the community to acknowledge the challenges in holding opposing views. With this newfound interest, progress can be made in the direction of finding a midpoint in terms of the directions one can take to have a productive conversation.
The Rubble is going to be hosting opportunities for students to model such purposeful disagreement. If you are interested in being a part of one of these discussions, please reach out:
Emaan Ehtasham (ths25115@towerhill.org) or Mrs. Ashbrook (rashbrook@towerhill.org).
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