Learning Through Comparisons

Kristyn, yes, we learn through comparisons.  Your own journey underscores how changing contexts has deepened your understanding of issues.  This writer has been a teacher in a high school in Canada where 30% of the students were Indians from three nearby reservations.  He has worked also in one of this country's top "finishing schools" for young women in New York City area, which has a tuition of $20,000 / year!  You get the idea.  Through such adventures, experiences, he has been able, as you have, to compare and contrast issues.  In fact, he has been exploring how to arrange an exchange of police officers between Wisconsin and Florida so they can have similar compare and contrast learning opportunities!  Aristotle observed that through such comparisons we learn to know what is good, or what he called excellence.  Once we know excellence, he said, it is harder to settle for second or third best.  The challenge is to help all persons have a taste of excellence to motivate them to not settle for less.  Good job.  Dr. Rux