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College students leave school with more debt today than any previous generation. With the increasing costs of both public and private colleges and universities, loans have become increasingly common as a way to finance education. According to the federal reserve, student debt has increased by 102% percent between 2010 and 2020. Given these difficulties and the availability of more and more online education, especially post-pandemic, people have begun questioning the value of a traditional college education. Recent attempts to provide free tuition for qualified students have left many questioning the resulting costs to taxpayers. So what is the right balance? What might be done?
Living Room Conversations offers a simple, sociable and structured way to practice communicating across differences while building understanding and relationships. Typically, 4-6 people meet in person or by video call for about 90 minutes to listen to and be heard by others on one of our nearly 100 topics. Rather than debating or convincing others, we take turns talking to share, learn, and be curious. No preparation is required, though background links with balanced views are available on some topic pages online. Anyone can host using these italicized instructions. Hosts also participate.
Share your name, where you live, what drew you here, and if this is your first conversation.
These will set the tone of our conversation; participants may volunteer to take turns reading them aloud. (Click here for the full conversation agreements.)
Optional: a participant can keep track of time and gently let people know when their time has elapsed.
Each participant can take 1-2 minutes to answer one of these questions:
Take ~2 minutes each to answer a question below without interruption or crosstalk. After everyone has answered, the group may take a few minutes for clarifying or follow up questions/responses. Continue exploring additional questions as time allows..
Take 2 minutes to answer one of the following questions: