#Fostering #Engaged #Citizenship #Dynamo #Healthy #Democracy
– What is going on right now? Why have we recently had what can only be described as a crisis in American democracy. – Trust has been declining in the United States for the last 60 years. – One of the things about a lot of the new technology, social media, digital technology,
Is that it allows for instantaneous reactions. – Our students have come of age in a moment when there are a lot of questions about truth, versus myth, versus lies. – Citizenship or the skills of citizenship are made and not born. – Democracy is supposed to include all voices
In the conversation of deciding what is just, what is not, what is good, what is bad for society at large. – A lot of the times people think civic engagement is just about voting or just about running for office, but it’s so much more, there’s so much that you can do
To be actively engaged in your community. – So the SNF Paideia Program is a 21st century version of that ancient notion of educating the whole person that’s designed really to teach our students the skills, the knowledge, the experiences of public discussion around contentious issues
And with people who may be different than you are. – Generation Citizen brings action civics into classrooms across the country to help young people practice and learn democracy. – When the Stavros Niarchos Foundation developed the relationship with Johns Hopkins University, there was a really clear vision of wanting
To realize the promise of the ancient agora in modern times. – The Academy for American Democracy is a program that focuses on civics and history education for sixth graders specifically, where we trace the history of democracy in ancient Athens, to democracy here in the United States, talking about how a democracy works,
And how can we, as people who live in a democracy, make change. – You have to have a really good idea and an idea that’s at the right time. And this turns out to be a really good idea at exactly the right time. – One of my greatest hopes
Is that the SNF Agora Institute becomes a place where we help make the possible more plausible. – You have to show people the joy and you have to show people the pleasure of what it’s like to stay at the table to do that work. – I think that if we really understood ourselves
And other people better, then we would have more productive disagreement. – I was born deaf and with a cleft lip and palate. So half of my life I spent not being able to speak or hear. And so the ability to actually have a meaningful conversation to me has always been super important.
– It is incredible to watch sixth graders be engaged in their community. They get so excited and they realize not only that they have a voice, but that their voice matters, and then it can actually change things.
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