Courageous Conversations About Our Schools

Send us a textRich Harwood knows a thing or two about depolarizing communities. He’s been doing it—successfully—for over 30 years, which is why I wanted to probe his thinking about the widening divides and the worrisome rise of culture wars that are threatening our public schools.Let me simply say, Rich rocked my world! Despite the extensive reading I’ve done on the subject

Send us a textIn the final episode of this series, several people reflect on the lessons learned from Middletown’s successful efforts to avoid a costly culture war and to unify around an inclusive vision of education that all of its students. In addition to Middletown’s community leaders who share their takeaways from this story, Amanda Ripley, an internationally recognized exp

Send us a textIn this second of three episodes about a culture war simmering in Middletown, Ohio, we learn how Superintendent Styles responds to allegations of racism and violations of students’ rights because of health mandates. Hint: He didn’t fight back. Instead, he listened to his critics. He then asked for help from the community’s “quiet majority,” a group he called

Send us a textThis is the first of three episodes about the unusual steps school leaders in Middletown, Ohio took to defuse tensions over race issues and health policies. These tensions could have led to a full-blown culture war - the kind of knock-down, drag out clashes that have pitted educators, parents, and even students against one another in a growing number of school distric

Send us a textThis podcast usually focuses on how adults can have less contentious, more fruitful conversations about schools, but my two guests on this episode have plenty to say about the need to strengthen communication and relationships among young people. In fact, Nina Murphy and Kellie Dromboski (along with Maurice Elias) have written a book on the subject called, Morning Cla

Send us a textIt’s April 2024. Polarization in America is at an all-time high, and another highly contentious election season is fast approaching. Fears about teacher bias and the undue influence they might have over their students has raised suspicions among parents and has led several states to restrict what teachers can discuss with their students — like “divisive concepts

Send us a textWhen Daniel Buck’s article, “In Defense of the Education Culture Wars,” appeared in my news feed, I thought, Is this guy kidding? Is he seriously arguing that the culture wars are a good thing for schools? Turns out he was, which made me think, I have to get this guy on my show.Buck agreed to join me, and what you’ll hear in this conversation is him explaining

Send us a textSince 2020, nearly 20 states have passed legislation prohibiting public school educators from teaching “divisive concepts” or any content that might cause students to feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” because of their race or sex. Florida and several other states have also adopted new policies that ban instruction ab

Send us a textAccording to a recent Washington Post article, homeschooling is the fastest growing form of education in America. As many as 2.7 million students are currently being homeschooled. One of my guests, Heidi Sampson, is a veteran homeschooling parent from Maine and a four-term Republican legislator. She concedes that homeschooling is not for everyone but says, “The over

Send us a textMost of us have opinions about transgender people and, perhaps, about the controversial policies affecting transgender students - like ones requiring teachers to notify parents if their students are using names that do not match their birth gender. But few of us have ever had a real, in-depth conversation with a transgender person where we have gotten a chance to hear