4. Be able and willing to regularly engage in questioning

4. Be able and willing to regularly engage in questioning the forces, institutions, and belief systems that shaped not only his or her own values and beliefs, but those of teachers and classmate, the university and the larger community as well.
Questioning during "debate" is a very central portion of such a "debate". Shouldn't you question those entities within our society that helps form and shape daily activities and decisions? Yes, you should, however, you need to have a background in those areas that you question. Perhaps you have taken classes, or spent much discussion with peers, done research, had experiences that bring out those real life items that explain what you are trying to clarify. Experience usually includes, success, failure, partial failure and incomplete success.
To have your opinion counted in a "discussion", you need to make your point offering reasons for or a cause of your case. Usually people that have done prior research in the topic for the evening, say for a town council meeting, will be listened to more than those who do not know what they are talking about. Our democracy demands that people keep abreast of current, statewide, national and international events so we can understand the activities of our government and contact our representatives with information that may help them with the decision making process.
Representatives in a Democratic Republic such as ours are dependent on "public opinion" to help them vote. Citizens do not have a direct vote on these matters, only the representatives which interpretate what the citizenry wills.