A Culture of Civil Discourse
Fostering productive, respectful civil discourse has always been a strength of this school and one of our most sacred obligations. Our mission promises that students will be challenged to “think critically” and “engage meaningfully in our community and beyond.” Schools have to be places where students can learn how to speak up with conviction, disagree with respect, listen with an open heart, and foreground our common humanity. Where else can they? In a polarized, influencer-focused, social-media-dominated age, spaces for that kind of exchange are disappearing, and the social risks of engagement can feel stifling.
Last fall, I opened the term with a talk exploring this idea, recognizing the challenges, and offering some hope that BUA can be an oasis. The tradition here of open, healthy, and informed back-and-forth in our classroom gives me confidence. We also continue to put in place intentional programming to foster productive dialogue in spaces outside the safety of the curriculum. Conversations@BUA, a teacher-curated space for students, faculty, and staff to meet together to discuss controversial topics every several weeks, will begin again next week with a Friday-afternoon discussion about free speech under the cloud of political violence. This year, several students have formed a current events club to provide even more structured opportunities for learning together and pushing one another’s thinking. The faculty and staff are learning too. Several of us did some training with the Close Up Foundation earlier this year, and we have planned a few internal professional development sessions to sharpen our skills around charged conversations in class. BUA is also in the early stages of organizing a civil discourse conference for students and faculty across Boston-area independent schools for later this year.
In the interest of making sure our school’s voice does not chill individual voices in the community, we clarified the school’s position about institutional statements in response to national and world events. The statement speaks for itself and has, so far, served us well.
I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and disagreement.