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Hockaday Hosts Area School Civil Discourse Training
In partnership with Close Up, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, civic education organization that informs, inspires, and empowers young people to become active citizens, Hockaday hosted more than 90 students at the ISAS and Close Up Student Facilitation Training on Friday, September 20.
Students from area schools, including Greenhill School, Parish Episcopal School, Fort Worth Country Day, Ursuline Academy, Alcuin School, Bishop Lynch High School, The Oakridge School, and Cristo Rey Dallas, along with the Dallas Youth Commission, took part in the training, which was designed to help students engage in complex conversations and develop skills for facilitating challenging issue discussions with their peers.
Friday’s session involved three parts: student deliberation, facilitation skill development, and civic ambassadorship. Students took part in a deliberation about cell phone policies in schools and reviewed facilitation guides and materials to prepare to lead their peers in small-group discussions. They were introduced to general practices and principles of facilitation, including how to bring unheard perspectives and hesitant students into the discussions. As a takeaway, they were given resources to help them tackle issues in their schools or communities, including materials to conduct a school or neighborhood inventory, do a root cause analysis, and identify pathways for action.
“I am immensely proud of the outstanding work displayed by all the students who participated in the Close Up session,” said Dr. Tracey Tevis, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Hockaday School. “Witnessing students from various schools come together to learn essential skills in civil discourse and collaborate on solving a problem while listening and making sure all perspectives and ideas were heard was genuinely remarkable.”
Over the past year, Hockaday has worked to develop a comprehensive plan for the school year, focusing on programming that removes partisanship, polarization, and politics and allows for thoughtful, respectful, and engaging conversations on challenging social and political issues, both in the classroom and throughout the school.
As part of this plan, Hockaday student leaders took part in a separate training in August and attended Friday’s larger session. “I really enjoyed the meaningful and real-world applicable discussions that we had in our small-group environment,” said Sunnie W. (Class of 2025). “The skills we learned will be so useful as we step into the real world next year, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to learn how to start collaborative, empathetic conversations in the future.”
“While learning how to facilitate discussions mainly influenced the way I lead Hockaday’s weekly Affinity Council meetings, it has simultaneously taught me how to carry casual but productive conversations with those around me every day,” said Alexa M. (Class of 2025). “This training has shown me that, especially amidst an election year, building empathy and actively listening to others’ perspectives can take us far.”
The Hockaday School
Within the private school community, The Hockaday School is an independent college-preparatory day school for girls from grades PK–12 located in Dallas, Texas. Students realize their limitless potential through challenging academic curricula, arts, athletics, and extracurricular programs so that they are inspired to lead lives of purpose and impact.