This month’s house meeting was the first meeting run by the newly elected School Government after the recent elections.

Civil Discourse Discussions

The meeting was heavily focused on a brand-new initiative that will begin sometime in the spring: Civil Discourse Discussions.

Due to the polarity that political issues – like the recent war in the Middle East and the upcoming presidential election – cause, the school administration is creating a forum to have conservations on such contentious topics.

These group conversations will provide students with varying opinions the opportunity to come together and have productive, civilized dialogues. The spaces are not meant to be a place for debate, but rather a chance to obtain information and expand your worldview by hearing opinions that are not one’s own.

The details are not set in stone yet, but the school government has been tasked with creating a preliminary outline of how this initiative would work out. Considerations such as the size of groups, when to run these sessions, and whether or not students should be able to ask questions anonymously were discussed at the meeting.

Peer-led Learning Week

Lastly, with peer-led learning week coming up soon, ways to increase student participation were explored. Students said that peer-led learning week last year occurred at a stressful point in the year, meaning that many students who otherwise would have wanted to engage could not have taken on that extra responsibility. Government members also said that increased advertising of the week would be helpful.

The first meeting with the new government group was an overall success with the exciting Civil Discourse Discussions program covered in addition to ways to improve Peer-led Learning Week.