re: My son was getting brainwashed at school and I couldn't articulate an argument.

My Dear Friend,

I too lament the use of a trash production in a lamentable effort to address and rectify a woeful shortcoming. The ability to form and communicate arguments is an art and your mind must be trained. Schools could help. It is a travesty that more high schools do not invest more time into their speech and forensics departments to teach students arts like debate whether it be team debate or the Lincoln/Douglas one on one style. Or extemporaneous speech wherein they give you a topic and you have 90 minutes to prepare. Or just plain speech where the teacher would assign you a topic and a side to convince the audience.

My friend, I know you would concur with my belief that we must learn how to " argue: before we can "argue". To often we do not take the time to formulate and organize our arguments. Sites like Tigerdroppings unfortunately contribute to this malady of unsophistication that has infected our society .

So many who would complain of the inability of their youth to formulate coherent well structured argument are themselves caught up in the emotional .

To effectively argue, we must be able organize and prepare our positions and....also an ability to refute and potentially indict the other side's foundational evidence.

It all starts with speech class.