November 7, 2024 Read Time:
Connectingadult learningFall GatheringCivic Muslce
We are less than two weeks from the 2024 Presidential Election, which is the most contentious race I can remember. On the same day, we are hosting the ECLC Fall Gathering, aptly entitled Conversations We Need to Have (but often avoid). We will spend the day focused on conflict, an unfortunate but inevitable part of life. As our keynote speaker Amanda Ripley wrote in High Conflict, the real work for all of us is to embrace the idea of what she calls "good conflict," where we learn to listen to and see others - no matter who they are or what they stand for - as whole human beings.
Some of my own lessons in recent years have come from an unexpected place: my neighborhood dog park. When we first adopted our dog, I never imagined how much my social circle would grow. We are all dog people at the dog park, but in some cases that’s where our similarities end. We have different backgrounds, we speak different languages, and we have had different life experiences. We don’t always agree with one another - especially when it comes to politics - but it doesn’t matter. Even when we disagree, it’s “good conflict,” meaningful conversations made possible by the relational trust we have developed over time.
The dog park, like many other places, is a civic space where everyone belongs. In an excerpt from the forthcoming book Belonging Without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World, the authors distinguish between breaking and bridging. Breaking is about turning on each other, and bridging is about turning toward each other and building something together. When we are breaking, we tend to retreat into a protective, safe bubble, but we can also lose perspective. When we are bridging, we leave the bubble and open up an expanded space for civic engagement and possibility. When we are bridging, we build “civic muscle,” the ability to set aside what divides us and understand one another’s points of view - so we can accomplish more together.
Public schools are among the most important civic spaces in our society. Schools are the setting for many different kinds of difficult conversations on any given day: between teachers and administrators, educators and families, teachers and students, and people of different social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. These conversations require us to flex and strengthen our civic muscle, to create space to work together to make decisions, solve problems, and co-create a vision for a vibrant community that is more than the sum of its parts.
Let us continue building our collective civic muscle so we can help students learn to build their own. Let us challenge one another to keep building our capacities to engage in "good conflict." The ECLC Fall Gathering on November 5 will be a great place to start. We hope to see you there!
