I am beginning the second year of a multi-year research project in Hammond, Louisiana involving nine kindergarten through second-grade classes.  The teachers in each of these classes are using a set of activities called CosmoKidz to engage the children in brief but daily conversations about their social worlds of sharing, teasing, making new friends, cheating, making decisions together, etc.  The purpose of these conversations is to help the children develop communication skills that foster their social and civic intelligence.

Several years ago, when Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski brought up the need for a new jail to the county commission, he pointed out that the current jail could house 192 prisoners and that we had 266 inmates. It costs about $50.00 per inmate per day to house a prisoner in other counties, so the county was losing money every month—a lot of money was leaving our county and going to other counties. There were also health and safety concerns, for prisoners and for jail staff. We needed to invest in a new jail with more beds.

In the autumn of 2017, Anna Brosche, City Council President called for public discourse and enlisted the help of the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund. Along with Leadership Jacksonville and other organizatons, we hosted 16 forums in February and March 2018 with over 200 participants.

A June 20, 2018 local news report included:

"The city council president, who will conclude her leadership of the council at the end of this month, initially took a strong stand for 'respectfully removing' and 'relocating' the city's Confederate memorials to places like museums. She has since come to the conclusion that just isn't feasible in Jacksonville."

In January 2015, I (Library Director Blythe Ogilvie of Richfield Public Library) was awarded one of two Taylor Willingham Legacy Fund grants through NIFI (National Issues Forums Institute), from among hundreds of applications received both nationally and internationally.

Unfortunately, Sevier County and the surrounding area has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. I sit on a multi-agency team including Central Utah Counseling, Sevier School District, community agencies and religious organizations which meets monthly to address prevention issues, and to plan and evaluate ongoing programs, including anti-bullying campaigns and “kindness” initiatives in the schools.

In myriad ways, this has been an unprecedented year.  As I write this in mid-November, new Covid cases are increasing in every State in the U.S. and in many countries around the world.  Schools around the world have had to adopt new, and in many cases unprecedented, practices, including complete or hybrid online teaching and learning.  And yet, even in these most challenging of times, there are examples of teachers and schools continuing to use deliberative practices. I’d like to share three examples in hopes of inspiring educators to recognize that it is possible to effectively teach deliberative skills/practices to very young children, despite the circumstances we are living in.

The University of Montana is not a happy place to work these days.  We’ve had the wind knocked out of us as we’ve been pummeled with accusations of rape, complicity and cover up on our campus.  It’s forced a collective gasp from us, the employees of UM, for this is not the place we know. But there it is, like a hard, cold slap in the face.  Horrible things have happened here and now we must work through the calamity.