In a continued effort to provide opportunities for civil discourse at Nueva, the history department and school administration

collaborated to facilitate half-hour civil discourse practicum sessions on Nov. 13. Hosted by both students and faculty, the 14 practicums covered a variety of topics, ranging from the “History of Palestinian Statehood” to “Designer Babies: Bioethics in the Age of CRISPR.”
“The idea was to actually have practice in engaging in controversial topics and topics that maybe are going to have different opinions within the room,” said Simon Brown, chair of the history department. “Last year, we had a lot of discussion about the idea of civil discourse and how important it is, but it stayed pretty abstract, and what we wanted to do this year was actually do it.”
Brown co-hosted a practicum with fellow history teacher Tom Dorrance on “Israel and Palestine in the 20th Century.” The session began with students writing questions they had about the topic on notecards, after which Brown and Dorrance gave a brief overview of the history, striving to answer some of the notecards in the process. The practicum ended with time for students to talk amongst themselves about overlaps between the history of the conflict in Israel and Palestine and other histories of the 20th century.
“A big insight I gained from the session was that students came with specific questions that showed familiarity,” Brown said. “I think that that might inform how I would want to have sessions like this next semester.”
Other practicums took a more conversational approach. Upper School academic support coach Gretchen Kellough, who has led multiple Nueva trips including the 10th grade trip to Kauai, offered a session exploring the question, “Should Nueva travel to places with a history of American imperialism?” She sought to foster open discussion around Nueva’s 10th-grade curriculum, in which students learn about the imperialist implications of tourism in Hawaii before travelling there.
“I think nearly everyone contributed in some way,” Kellough said. “I didn’t feel like people were complaining just to vent. It felt like people were really trying to grapple with the topic in ways that I thought were helpful.”
The student-led practicum “American Polarization: Political Violence and Political Discourse on Abortion” was similarly discussion-based. Ava J.ʼ’26, along with other members of Nueva’s Ethics Bowl team, worked with Philosophy of Consciousness teacher Lee Holtzman to craft the session.
“[In our practicum] we talked about political violence and abortion, and we were ultimately aiming to answer the question of when it’s okay to take someone’s life,” Ava said.
Ava’s experience hosting the practicum challenged her preexisting notions about the diversity of viewpoints at Nueva.
“It made me consider my own assumptions about our student body, and it helped me realize that people have stuff to say and that when you’re not really given these kinds of spaces to be able to share your viewpoint, it might get lost,” Ava said. “I thought it was cool to hear new voices from people that I’ve never even spoken to before.”
While the practicums gave students a space to engage in civil discourse at Nueva, it was often a struggle to fully dive into the often contentious topics within the provided window.
“It’s hard to have a good, productive discussion without a little bit more time than we had in one 30-minute session,” Brown said.
Additional civil discourse practicums are being planned for the spring to continue these conversations.