Pleasantville Civic Education

Based on the NYSEC-designed civic education session, we ran two sessions at Pleasantville Middle School. They practiced civil conversations and a willingness to listen while engaging in controversial topics, no matter the age. After connecting with Pleasantville Middle School Principal Dr. Adam Chagares, we worked with him and their civics department in having NYSEC come in to run a civil discourse session.​ We worked with two 8th grade Civics classes in teaching them how to have civil conversations on topics they may disagree with. We focussed the session on having them talk to each other rather than us teach another lesson, simulating the real world environment they will experience when talking with others. It was a major success! We had multiple students come up to us after letting us know how much they enjoyed the session and asked how to get involved.​ We later discussed with Dr. Chagares the possibility of continuing NYSEC sessions and also working with Pleasantville High School. We were extremely happy with the results and are hoping to be back soon!