Huntington Teachers Participate in Democracy Exchange
With political debate in the United States and across the world polarized to a historic degree, the cause of breaking through seemingly impenetrable roadblocks has taken on a sense of urgency. The future of societies, countries and even continents rests on successfully addressing at least some of mankind's most pressing problems.
The Kettering Foundation's Democracy Exchange spurred Huntington School District Chairperson of Humanities Joseph Leavy and J. Taylor Finley Middle School social studies teacher Ken Donovan to travel to Dayton, Ohio to explore with fellow professionals the effectiveness of educational programs in advancing the processes of democracy. Participants studied how to go about teaching teenagers the skills needed to tackle and solve even the thorniest public issues.
The international Democracy Exchange featured the use of multiple groups, each with a specific focus. "With university professors, 'Arab Spring' colleagues and community leaders from all regions throughout the United States, our group of secondary educators met with the intention of exploring further how to teach middle and high school students the skills involved in issue problem solving," said Mr. Leavy, who has trekked to Dayton three times in recent years.
"The main concept of the instructional approach is to teach students how to extend beyond debate, partisan or otherwise, when addressing issues that are urgent, and implement a forum process which is deliberative," Mr. Leavy said. "The approach guides students, and hopefully they and all citizens can learn how to deliberate. Unlike debate where two sides compete to win at the other side's expense, deliberation seeks win-win solutions by finding common ground to critical issues."
It was a productive trip for the two Huntington faculty members. "We walked away from the series of workshops with a refined understanding of how teaching 'deliberation' fully complements the priorities of literacy instruction in the Common Core, as well as the imperative task of guiding students in experiential learning in sound civics," Mr. Leavy said.
The Kettering Foundation has been collaborated with Huntington High School's humanities program to pull off two deliberative forums in the past year on the state of the US economy and on America's role in the world.
Messrs. Donavan and Leavy's summer work, along with the cooperation of several other Huntington social studies teachers, has laid the groundwork for another deliberative forum to be held in October. "Such a fall evening event has been a tradition at Huntington High School for more than five years and 2012 will see an experience much like the legendary 2008 'For Whom Shall I Vote' event," Mr. Leavy said.
The 2008 forum, held weeks before the US presidential election, drew hundreds of students. The teenagers engaged in a unique participatory event with Huntington social studies teachers. The first individually indentified where they stood on specific issues and then came to understand their likely political affiliation before determining which presidential candidate most closely addressed their priorities.
"In looking to enhance and improve upon the experience from four years ago, the plan for this fall is to work with Hofstra and Kettering by having an evening forum where students can find their political voice by means of a deliberative process," Mr. Leavy said.
While the journey to Ohio and back was a long one and the Democracy Exchange sessions were intense, Messrs. Donovan and Leavy returned rejuvenated and ready to roll up their sleeves and get down to work. The duo takes the initiative seriously. Mr. Leavy said deliberative democracy is "the antidote to our current environment of polarized politics."