Something to talk about...

A college in Canada has hired students to hang around student dining halls and either start conversations about social justice issues or intervene in conversations that seem to cross certain lines.

No, really, they have.

Among the issues that these "dialogue facilitators" will raise are those concerned with things like race, gender, social class, ability, and so on. As I recall, I had numerous conversations about gender and ability when I was seated at table with my fellow students. And those conversations were often - ahem - facilitated by observations of certain other students who happened to be walking by the table where I and my dialogue group were seated. Those students who facilitated our conversation did not, I believe, require any special training to spark our discussions and usually were able to complete their task using whatever gifts God had blessed them with -- gifts for which we often gave fervent thanks, as well.

The story quotes one person who applied to be a facilitator, a 46-year-old Master of Divinity student, as saying he hoped it would be a way to connect with many different students. First off, I have to say that he would not have passed our facilitator screening process. We had standards, after all, and we upheld them.

Secondly, I have to wonder how well this idea was thought through. It's been a little over three years since I worked at a college, so students may have changed drastically. But the idea of having some dude their dad's age show up at their table when they were eating and try to start a conversation about social justice should have been a non-starter to anyone with any sense. Further, these facilitators will live in student housing. So what you've got is a grind who not only blathers about their pet issue at dinner, they can keep yammering at you when you go back to your dorm.

I'm not knocking the idea of a dialogue facilitator -- in fact, I wish we had some around back when I was in college. Believe me, several of us could have used someone to facilitate our lame attempts at dialogue with some of those other students we had observed so closely.