Askwith Essentials: Education, Democracy, and Human Rights

Student Activism on the Rise:

As students are claiming their rightful place in today’s ongoing dialogues on gun control and school safety — leading powerful demonstrations such as March for Our Lives and National School Walkout Day — there are an increasing number of educators who urge schools to allow students to voice their opinions, and make these conversations a regular occurrence. “The first time that people should be trying to talk about a controversial issue should not be when controversy has exploded within the school,” Professor Meira Levinson told Usable Knowledge. “It’s important to have these types of conversations happening as a regular part of the school experience.”

How can we cultivate this civic-mindedness in young people? What is the role of educators? And how can civil rights organizations help?

Resources for students:

• Youth in Front, a collaboration among Harvard Graduate School of Education, Usable Knowledge, and the MIT Teaching Systems Lab which offers advice and information for youth activists.

Resources for educators:

• Be the Change, a lesson plan from Teaching Tolerance that promotes civic engagement.
• Facing History and Ourselves’ Fostering Civil Discourse: A Guide for Classroom Conversations.

Panelists:

• Roger Brooks, president and CEO, Facing History and Ourselves
• Maureen Costello, Teaching Tolerance director, Southern Poverty Law Center
• Melissa Garlick, civil rights national counsel, Anti-Defamation League
• Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, HBS; chair and director, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative
• Meira Levinson, professor of education, HGSE

Moderator:

• Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education and director, International Education Policy Program and Global Education Innovation Initiative, HGSE; co-chair, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative