SHP’s Peaceful Discourse Pledge Takes on Polarization

This fall, SHP students and faculty worked together to create a framework for discussing election season topics as a way to surmount polarization on campus. The resulting Peaceful Discourse Pledge has proven useful in a dozen or more classroom activities over the past two months.

 

Adapted from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Civilize It pledge that promotes civility, clarity, and compassion, this year’s SHP version of the pledge established new criteria geared toward this particular election cycle; a student-made video launched the pledge, and classes and projects soon began to adopt the framework. Its use has been seen in forums, individual projects to end polarization, an election series on KQED, and more.

 

“This was an anchoring framework for how we thought about peaceful discourse as a school,” said SHP assistant principal of mission & culture Lauren Benjamin. “It’s hard to feel a sense of peace about this time, especially with all the confusion and congestion in news and social media.”

 

“If our mission calls us to believe in something bigger than divisiveness, how do you do that, what’s the framework, and what do we agree to? That’s why it’s important, because it gives our kids something to work with, to anchor themselves in the right state of mind, heart, and spirit, as they also navigate this time that feels really uncertain,” she added.

 

As the pledge was created, it generated an idea for a project by AP Government students, guided by faculty project advisor Kristen Kelly, that would model peaceful discourse through a panel of a dozen participants.

 

Topics included COVID-19 and the economy, Black Lives Matter and systemic racism, police accountability, whether the United States should rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, and more. Questions were developed by three student moderators around key issues, and rehearsed before undertaking the 40-minute live Zoom panel discussion.

 

“I was impressed with their conversation, and the way that they respectfully talked about all the issues that were on the table,” said Benjamin.

 

Another project influenced by the Peaceful Discourse Pledge was a mock election—a long Sacred Heart tradition—that this year was held online over the course of a week prior to Election Day. With a goal of encouraging “civic engagement and education,” concerns were raised that a mock election this year could “further political divisions in our community,” said Ava Borchers (SHP ’21) one of the student leaders who organized the mock election. “So, we focused a lot on California propositions to put an emphasis on policy,” she added.

 

With over 300 student participants, the mock election team sought to encourage students to voice their opinion on a selection of measures on the California ballot hand-picked by student leaders as being the most relevant to the SHP student body.

 

“In such a crucial election, I felt it was vital that students who couldn’t legally vote have an outlet to express themselves, and hopefully promote civic engagement in the future,” said mock election team member Beck Anderson (SHP ’21).

 

Student Katie Sandhu (SHP ’21), who along with Borchers created infographics for the event, added, “I was proud of the team for working to continue the Sacred Heart tradition of mock elections… My hope is that it taught SHP students how to understand complex issues and exercise this important right [of voting].”