At this week's Round Table, Jack, Kenisha, and Maya spoke with veteran educator Kent Lenci, author of Learning To Depolarize: Helping Students and Teachers Reach Across Lines of Disagreement. Kent framed for us that political polarization feels acute because of the negative connotation surrounding this concept. However, his goal is to help educators navigate the complexities of polarization in order to prepare today’s students to face tomorrow’s polarization. Through doing so, youth can be encouraged and supported in facing the challenges of working across lines of disagreement. 

We had lots of questions for him: What does polarization look like in educational settings? What WORKS in defusing polarization? What HELPS build bridges against lines of disagreement? We discussed our concerns that too often, education is being used as either a political weapon or a political tool rather than a system to serve people as the bipolar nature of our political divide has grown bigger and more intense. Too often, those who try to encourage viewpoint diversity and to reach out to people we disagree with are met with skepticism, mistrust, and pushback. In the face of threat, Kent noted that rational thinking becomes disabled as individuals develop a “fight-or-flight mechanism” fearing an attack on a crucial part of their identity. It doesn’t have to be this way! Kent inspired us to try to look at things and people in the most charitable light and to embrace perspectives all across the spectrum in relation to issues facing our world today. Thank you for listening!

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