Courageous Conversations About Our Schools
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© 2025 Courageous Conversations About Our Schools
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Bringing people together for respectful conversations about today’s most contentious issues affecting our schools. A way forward in divided times.
46 Episodes
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In a live, online discussion we co-hosted with Braver Angels on September 4th, 2025, eight panelists discussed whether Ethnic Studies should be required for high school graduation, whether such a course should even be offered at all, or whether the content is likely to do more harm than good. Nearly 200 audience members from across the country listened in and posed questions as panelists shared their views and personal experiences, listened, and responded respectfully to audience questi...
Should high school students be required to take an Ethnic Studies course? Should such a course even be offered at all, or is the content likely to do more harm than good? These were the questions that a diverse group of panelists discussed in a live, online “fishbowl” discussion we co-hosted with Braver Angels on September 4th, 2025. Nearly 200 audience members from across the country listened in and posed questions as panelists shared their views and personal experiences, listened respectful...
In this timely conversation, attorney Leo Tucker shares his expertise on preparing schools and communities for immigration enforcement actions that could separate children from their families. As executive director of Aid (Aiding Survivors of Trafficking and Child Abuse), Tucker has developed a comprehensive, free guide called "Preparing for ICE Raids" that helps schools create rapid response plans to protect vulnerable students. Key highlights: Legal distinctions between "undocumented" vs. "...
In this episode, host Ken Futernick speaks with James Coan, founder of More Like US, along with high school students Landon and Deegan, about perception gaps in American society. James explains how perception gaps are the exaggerated negative views we hold about people with different political beliefs. Research shows Americans across the political spectrum are actually more similar than they realize, but media, social platforms, and political systems often incentivize division. For Landon and...
In this Courageous Conversation, host Ken Futernick and Dr. Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of History of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, delve into the heated debates surrounding American schooling. They explore the historical roots of compulsory education, analyze the recent Supreme Court ruling (Mahmoud v. Taylor) on opt-outs for LGBTQ+-friendly texts, and discuss the rise of unregulated homeschooling. Zimmerman shares concerns about the future of civic education and our abili...
In this episode, host Ken Futernick sits down with Bruce Wasser, a former history teacher whose life story is as inspiring as his teaching career. Bruce shares his poignant journey from being a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War to becoming a beloved educator who had a profound impact on his students. Listen as Bruce recounts the pivotal moments that shaped his life, including the influence of his high school basketball coach and the challenges he faced in standing up for his belie...
This story starts with a bag of shoes that helped a school community heal after the tragic deaths of two students. That story blossomed into a unique project called the “Shoe Club” that fosters empathy and breaks barriers in a Michigan middle school. The founder of the club and guest on this episode is Matt Hamilton, a 2025 Horace Mann and NEA Award-winning teacher from East Jordan Public Schools in Michigan. The Club has gotten national attention with inscribed shoe donations from the likes ...
How many of us would have the courage to have a conversation with someone who hates us? My guest, Daryl Davis, has done just that, not once, but for decades, with members of the Ku Kluz Klan and other hate groups, and many have renounced their ideology after getting to know him. A Black musician, Davis shares his unbelievable story driven by one powerful question: "How can you hate me when you don't even know me?" Prepare to be challenged to rethink how we and our students engage with those w...
This episode is part of our series on our sister podcast, Teacher Stories, on what schools can do to help save our democracy. Guests include Dr. Marvin W. Berkowitz, McDonnell Professor of Character Education at the Center for Character Education and Citizenship at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and Dr. Kashina Bell, Deputy Superintendent for the School District of University City in St. Louis, Missouri. Both talk about character education - what it looks like, how it's done, and wh...
American democracy cannot survive without well-functioning schools that enable students to become good citizens and that teach them to appreciate what it means to live under a system whose only boss are the people themselves. That’s the claim my guest Brook Manville makes in his new book, The Civic Bargain – How Democracies Survive. In this wide-ranging conversation about civic education, Manville says schools must cultivate “civic friendship,” one of seven conditions that have be...
Curiosity has been a common theme in this podcast. Conflict experts like my guests Amanda Ripley, Monica Guzman, and Peter Coleman say being curious and less judgmental is often a better way out of toxic conflict than making stronger arguments or presenting more facts. And, as we heard from our recent guest, Tim Shriver, it’s a much better alternative than treating one’s adversaries with contempt, which often makes matters worse. “Contempt only makes an enemy for your cause,” he says. ...
In our previous episode (Ep. 36), Tim Shriver America’s widening political and social divides are, surprisingly, not due to our differences. “We’ve always had differences,” he says, “Contempt is the problem.” Shriver explains why treating others with dignity is more likely to produce the results we want and why contempt usually does the opposite. He and his colleagues created the Dignity Index to help us recognize the various ways we can regard our adversaries—either with contempt or wi...
Tim Shriver is a member of the Kennedy family, Chairman of Special Olympics International, co-founder of UNITE, and a former teacher. In this wide-ranging conversation with host Ken Futernick, Shriver describes a tool he co-created called the Dignity Index, and he describes how educators are using it to address our widening political and social divides. “We built it because there's an issue in our culture, in our families, in our homes, and in our schools that we haven't paid that much attent...
School mission statements across the county commonly included language about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. DEI training for educators was also common. But that’s changed in recent years as school culture wars erupted around the books students have access to: how students learn about history, race, and gender identity, and anything that smacks of “woke” ideology. DEI, as perceived by its advocates, is a unifying concept, but because a growing segment of the population perceives it as...
One would think that schools are the perfect place for students to learn about elections. What better opportunity to use the critical thinking skills they’ve learned in making sense of what the candidates are saying and to distinguish credible information from what they often encounter on social and mainstream media? These skills would certainly serve them well after the election when there are sure to be protests, claims, and counterclaims about election fraud and tampering. However, many te...
This episode will interest anyone interested in what it takes to successfully lead a politically diverse school board (or any such organization) in these highly polarized times. My guest, Dr. Katy Anthes, did just that as Colorado’s Commissioner of Education from 2016 to 2023 by building trust, getting leaders to agree on norms about how they would disagree, and developing a common vision of education that members of her state board could embrace. Rather than avoiding sharp disagreement...
Ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a school shooter? Or, why someone chooses to kill innocent people? My guest, Aaron Stark, was ready to commit mass murder but decided, at the last minute, not to follow through with his plan. He also chose not to kill himself. In this episode, you’ll hear Aaron’s harrowing story of abuse, neglect, and trauma, and you’ll find out what it took to prevent yet another tragedy that would have contributed to America’s epidemic of gun violence. There’s no doub...
One day after interviewing clinical psychologist Hayley Watson for Part 1 of this two-part series about the need for better mental health support in schools, Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia walked onto campus with a military-style rifle and killed two other students and two math teachers. He also injured at least 8 others before he was taken into custody. According to the shooter’s aunt Annie Brown, had been “begging for help from everyone ar...
Immediately following the fatal shooting of two students and two math teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia, the predictable debate over gun laws ensued. Less prominent were calls for another remedy for school gun violence that can have an immediate impact and, surprisingly, is not politically polarizing: mental health support. Colt Gray, the 14-year-old shooter had been “begging for help from everyone around him,” according to his aunt Annie Brown. It appears he was unable to ...
Rich Harwood knows a thing or two about depolarizing communities. He’s been doing it—successfully—for over 30 years, which is why I wanted to probe his thinking about the widening divides and the worrisome rise of culture wars that are threatening our public schools. Let me simply say, Rich rocked my world! Despite the extensive reading I’ve done on the subject and the interviews I’ve conducted with several conflict experts, I learned something new about the dynamics of conflict. And, more im...
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