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This fall, for students of all ages, "back to school" means bridging.
Across the country, as America's educators and students return to school, many are grappling with the looming election, lingering tensions around the Israel-Gaza conflict, and yesterday's lamentable reminder that gun violence in schools continues to devastate countless lives. Where can America's educational communities look for hope, and help? Fortuitously, a wave of innovative curriculum, pedagogy, and programming is emerging to "meet the moment" during this highly charged back-to-school season. From middle schools to high schools to universities, new approaches are empowering administrators, faculty, students, and school boards with skills to bridge divides, foster respectful conversations, cultivate viewpoint diversity, and inspire healthy civic engagement.Here's a fun fact: At Vanderbilt University, every incoming freshman this fall was encouraged to read I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, Mónica Guzmán's thought-provoking primer on appreciating diverse perspectives. This is just one of countless examples of how schools are prioritizing bridging and civil discourse in the coming school year.
Scroll down to learn more about how schools are prioritizing bridging, civil discourse, and healthy civic engagement in Fall 2024.
In this roundup, we highlight some of the most impactful and creative efforts that are gathering momentum on campuses across the country.
Higher-Ed Round-Up
2023-2024 was a Record Year for Civic Preparedness on College Campuses
At the beginning of the 2023–24 academic year, a group of 15 college presidents from a wide variety of institutions united to form the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness through the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. This initiative has quickly gained momentum, expanding to include over 77 college presidents in just a year. Together, these universities have committed to promoting civil discourse on their campuses by engaging in impactful research, offering fellowships, creating new courses, hosting events, and much more.
Student Leaders Gather in Chicago to Advance Cross-Partisan Conversations
"The problem is not that students don’t want to talk — the problem is that the majority of students don’t feel there is the right space and structure to have a productive conversation. It’s that we’re focusing on the vocal minority when we should be elevating the majority of students who are seeking spaces for conversation. We need to flip this narrative that young people don’t want dialogue, and instead be proactive in elevating stories of success."Last month, over a hundred young chapter leaders representing more than 63 BridgeUSA campus clubs gathered in Chicago for the annual BridgeUSA summit. BridgeUSA has been providing a gathering place for students in a tense political climate for them to connect and forge a politics of hope, and has been particularly active in empowering students to converse around Israel and Gaza in a thoughtful manner. Read About the SummitRead BridgeUSA's Piece in 'The Hill'
College Students Prepare to Meet Their Opposite During the Unify Challenge College Bowl
The Unify Challenge College Bowl has hosted more than 14,000 students from 205 colleges to date.The Unify Challenge College Bowl is a virtual intercollegiate event where thousands of students are paired into one-on-one conversations across differences. (So, a conservative student from a community college in Texas might be matched with a liberal student from a four-year public university in Illinois.)For about an hour, the pair discusses 16 hot-button issues like mental health, gun laws, immigration, and free speech on campus. The students share their points of view, find common ground, and discover that they can have a respectful conversation without conflict.Learn About the College Bowl
At Orientation, Students Learn the Power of Bridging Divides Through Humor
"Comedians are natural social scientists. The great ones have credibility because they shoot in every direction. Their power to highlight the absurd is exactly what we need now. Hearing funny, famous people express more open ideas could help students become more comfortable with new ideas and each other. "
The Jester’s Bridge Facilitator Guide, which pairs with the 15-minute documentary Jesters and Fools, is a collaboration between Heterodox Academy and Gotham Arts. This program prodvides students with multiple options for engaging constructively and courageously across disagreement. The free guide can be used by anyone teaching first-year students.Download the Guide
Teaching "Third Way Civics"
Third Way Civics was first piloted at Ball State University Teachers College.
"The purpose of Third-Way Civics is to transcend the civics wars and history wars by facilitating critically hopeful, politically empowering, locally controlled civic learning in the college setting."
Anchored at the Minnesota Humanities Center, Third-Way Civics is based on students' growing desire for a practically democratic education: one that positions them for economic success but also prepares them for lives of public purpose and productive citizenship.
Middle and High School Round-Up
From North Carolina to California, Mismatch Brings Diverse Classrooms Together
With Mismatch, students talk to other students across the country, inspiring them to connect beyond their immediate world and build a healthy democracy - without leaving the classroom.Differences come in all forms — ideological, racial, economical, geographical. Using Mismatch powered by AllSides, educators can schedule a conversation with a class very different than their own and receive a conversation guide from Living Room Conversations to help direct the students’ discussion. Mismatch is currently scaling with the goal of ramping up to 1,000 conversations per year across 2,000 classrooms – touching 8.5% of all secondary schools in the U.S. – all while remaining cheaper than a field trip for a classroom.Learn About Mismatch
Navigate Social Issues in the Classroom with Ease
Together with Generation Citizen and Rural Assembly, Making Caring Common developed Navigating Social Issues in the Classroom: A Toolkit for Educators as Community Bridge Builders, a resource to help middle and high school teachers and administrators collaboratively prepare students for and engage them in constructive dialogue across their differences.Download the Toolkit
28 Million People Reached This Civic Season
Civic Season, created by Made By Us, happens annually between Juneteenth and July 4th. During this period, museums, cultural institutions, and influencers across the country invite young people to reflect on our nation's history and explore their role in shaping the future.
A Playbook for Democracy Makers
Here’s your roadmap to creating civic gatherings that inspire and energize! This guide, the brainchild of futurists and creative thinkers at the Stanford d.school, is crafted for school, community, and civic leaders who want to spark positivity and cultivate meaningful connections as we shape the future together. Whether you're launching the school year with joy, organizing an intimate neighborhood gathering, or planning a large-scale civic event, this guide is your key to shifting perspectives and unlocking fresh, accessible ways to build the vibrant, inclusive communities we all aspire to be part of.
A Superintendent Diffuses a School Culture War in Middletown, OH
This three-part podcast is about a school culture war that was rumbling in Middleton, Ohio, a city in the heart of America's Rust Belt.
Middie Rising: A City Unites and Defuses a School Culture War chronicles how a humble superintendent in Middletown, Ohio, overcame intense criticism. Rather than attacking his critics, he listened and rallied the community to share their vision for schools. This journey offers “credible hope” and lessons for any community seeking to escape toxic conflict.Listen to the Podcast
You Could Be Wrong: Discover How A Teacher is Opening Student's Minds to Change
"Teachers like Bill are giving the next generation some of the skills we could all use more practice with. But it’s clear to me that some of us, some of you, are already doing it, already daring to wonder what you might be wrong about, already allowing yourselves if the evidence compels you to change your mind."Listen to this episode of the 'A Braver Way' podcast where Mónica Guzmán interviews Bill, a history teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy, who promotes openness to changing minds. Bill shares his journey, followed by listeners discussing how they’ve changed their minds on tough issues like gay marriage and abortion.Listen to the Podcast
Helping Students and Teachers Reach Across Lines of Disagreement
How can schools shoulder some responsibility for depolarizing our fractured American society? In this provocative book, Kent Lenci describes how educators can tackle the challenge of preparing students to communicate and collaborate across lines of deep disagreement-to face the political and ideological "other"-despite the conventional wisdom that schools should be apolitical.
Find Out What First Time Voters Think About This Election
In summer 2024, Close Up, the Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University (DDL), Helena, the Generation Lab, and the Neely Center at the University of Southern California hosted America in One Room: The Youth Vote in Washington, D.C. This historic event brought together a nationally representative and scientific sample of first-time voters from across the country—the people who will shape political discourse for decades to come—to deliberate key policy issues facing the nation. Read about America in One Room: The Youth VoteWant to be a game changer? Join Civic Health Project as a co-investor in our solutions portfolio. We conduct extensive due diligence to identify and deploy game-changing, massively scalable solutions to America's deep and increasingly dangerous divisions.Leveraging this expertise, we advise, partner, and collaborate with other institutional and individual funders who understand that overcoming these divisions is essential to the healthy functioning of of our relationships, communities, and country. To contribute to one or more of our scalable initiatives in 2024, please reach out to our team or click to donate.
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