Civil Discourse in a Republic: Using Historical Context to Discuss the Importance of Civility

Presented by Janet Pinto, CAO, CMO, Curriki; Kirk Higgins, Senior Manager, Education, Bill of Rights Institute; and Rachel Davison Humphries, Senior Manager, Outreach and Education, Bill of Rights Institute
Sponsored by Curriki and the Bill of Rights Institute

Watch the Recording

Would our country look the same if our elected officials, media personalities, and average people practiced good civil discourse? What if we spent our time trying to understand all sides of an issue, rather than force our own agenda? Would the United States be more accepting? More encouraging? More productive?

Civil discourse and civility are essential for the success of self-government. Without the ability to engage in meaningful public discourse, a republic soon becomes unstable, guided by mere passion with no room or time for reason. This edWebinar discusses the importance of civil discourse to the health of a republic and provide teachers with tools to foster civil discourse in their classrooms.

Middle and high school teachers, and school and district leaders will benefit from watching this recorded session.

About the Presenters 

As Chief Academic Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, Janet Pinto leads and manages all of Curriki’s content development, user experience, marketing, and academic direction. She also leads the vision and strategy for Curriki’s online learning offerings and develops and maintains relationships with academic partners.

Before Curriki, Janet worked at CampusCruiser, a Learning Management Systems provider for higher education; at SchoolNet, a K-12 education technology company; and Classroom Connect. Janet began her career in the education field as a special education teacher.

Kirk Higgins is the senior manager of education at the Bill of Rights Institute. He leads the team that develops educational resources and curriculum for the Institute. In addition, he oversees the Institute’s online materials, including Voices of History, Documents of Freedom, and its eLessons and teaching with current events resources. Kirk obtained his B.A. in history with minors in French and politics from Hillsdale College.

Rachel Davison Humphries is the senior manager of education and outreach at the Bill of Rights Institute. She leads the team that develops teacher and student programs, fosters close relationships with BRI’s network of 50,000 teachers, and manages the outreach initiatives. Prior to joining BRI in 2016, Rachel worked as an educator in middle, high school, and university environments, most recently as a lead and mentor teacher in Guatemala City, Guatemala. During almost a decade in the classroom, Rachel spent much of her career learning to become a master Socratic guide and has led multiple international Socratic pedagogy workshops. Rachel earned her B.A. in liberal arts from the Great Books program at St. Johns College, in Annapolis, Maryland, her teaching certificate in adolescent education from the Association Montessori Internationale, and is pursuing her master’s in learning and design at Georgetown University

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Curriki is the leading K-12 global platform, library and community for teachers, students, parents, and partners to create, contribute, connect, share, and find free and open learning resources, improving teacher effectiveness and ultimately student outcomes. Curriki’s online community of educators, learners, and committed education experts works to help teachers in less affluent schools struggling to provide students with quality, up-to-date materials aligned with today’s more demanding standards.

Established in September 1999, the Bill of Rights Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization that works to engage, educate, and empower individuals with a passion for the freedom and opportunity that exist in a free society. The Institute develops educational resources and programs for a network of more than 50,000 educators and 70,000 students nationwide.