Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories

Read More

Two people sitting next to each other as one person works with clay.

Global civic education helps students build trust, navigate ambiguity, and work across differences. Research shows it can strengthen civic leadership and reduce polarization.

Photo Courtesy of Tilting Futures

Why Fixing Polarization Requires Students to Cross Borders

I've been running global civic education programs for twelve years, and I keep seeing the same pattern: college-age students arrive believing they know how the world works and that their perspective is fact. Months later, after sustained global engagement, they return home fundamentally different, with their walls down and having gained a visceral understanding that their perspective is just that: a perspective, not the truth.

There's a reason this transformation matters so much at this age. This is the moment when mental models solidify into frameworks about how the world works, about who deserves trust, and about what's possible across difference. But without exposure to people and cultures that have alternative perspectives, those frameworks harden into us-versus-them certainties rather than nurture curiosity, further entrenching the polarization that is fracturing our country. Too often this polarization is framed as a knowledge problem rather than a moral perception problem.

Keep ReadingShow less
Two coloured pencils one red and one blue drawing a reef knot on a white paper background.

Two Americans from opposite political perspectives explore patriotism, democracy, and the importance of finding common ground in an increasingly divided nation.

Getty Images, David Malan

Trust But Verify: A Conservative and a Progressive on Loving America Honestly

Patriotism with Reservations

I am unapologetically patriotic and deeply grateful to be an American. My father served in the United States Army for twenty years, and because of his service I had the opportunity to live abroad in places such as Germany and South Korea. Those experiences broadened my worldview and gave me a greater appreciation for other cultures and nations. Yet they also reinforced a conviction that has only grown stronger with time: there is no place quite like the United States of America. For all of our imperfections, America remains a remarkable experiment in liberty, opportunity, and self-government.

As a Black conservative American, I recognize that I did not personally endure slavery, segregation, or the Jim Crow era. Nevertheless, I cannot ignore the challenges confronting our nation today. I am troubled by the increasingly divisive rhetoric surrounding immigration, the toxic state of our political discourse, the growing extremism that has taken root on both the left and the right, and the willingness of some to flirt with authoritarian impulses when democracy becomes inconvenient. These developments give me pause. They do not diminish my love for America, but they do create reservations about the direction we are heading.

Keep ReadingShow less