“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults.“
— Frederick Douglass
We’re on a mission to promote civic-mindedness.
Preventing Polarization
How ANY teacher (or parent) can help promote civic-mindedness and constructive dialogue
Too often we confuse a civic education as having taken a one and done course on the role of the government and how it functions. WRONG! Having a civic education should result in being civically minded. This means caring about what’s happening in your world and your community - and knowing you have a responsibility to shape its future. It means making the effort to have an informed opinion, to vote, and to get involved in what’s happening in the world.
In this book, we’ve used our experience as civics teachers to assess what prevents adults from effectively engaging in civics and politics, and have attempted to develop simple solutions for how we might overcome those roadblocks. We’ve done our best to break down problems with civic engagement, communication, and polarization to the least common denominator, so that any and all teachers can help us with our journey of developing a generation of engaged citizens.
A Podcast for ALL Educators
Teaching civic-mindedness can’t be accomplished in a one-off civics course. We ALL need to learn to talk about the issues no matter our political affiliation.
Don and Brian use their experiences as social studies teachers and on the campaign trail to talk issues with the goal of bringing civility and constructive dialogue back to the political arena!
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Brian Deters has been in education for twenty-seven years teaching social studies and coaching varsity soccer in the U.S. and abroad. Brian, a co-host of the 4 A Better Tomorrow Podcast, flew back and forth from Switzerland to run in the 2018 election as a U.S. Congressional primary candidate from the 18th District of Illinois. Brian holds a Bachelor’s in Secondary Education from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign as well as a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Illinois State University where he also served as an adjunct professor working in the field with student teachers in 2018 and 2019. He currently teaches sociology and civics at Morton High School in Morton, IL.
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Michelle is an educational consultant that infuses startup strategies into professional learning so that teachers are empowered to bring changemaking, social innovation, and SDGs into their work. After teaching social studies in both the U.S. and Switzerland, she founded the Educators’ Lab, which supports teacher-driven solutions to educational challenges. Michelle is the co-author of The Startup Teacher Playbook, and Preventing Polarization (2023). She has worked with organizations like PBS Education and Ashoka, and occasionally blogs for Edutopia. A graduate of IE University in Madrid, she is a part of the Global Shaper Community of the World Economic Forum and has presented at numerous events, including SXSWedu and TEDxLausanne.