When I taught civics, an important goal of each course was to learn how to create sound, reasoned arguments and present them in a calm manner. I’ve always tried to remind them that they can disagree with another person’s opinion without attacking the person. This was especially difficult when my high school students were confronted with issues they had strong opinions about. It always helps to lay out some ground rules before starting a discussion. For this purpose, people in School of thought recently released a new project called Rules of civil conversation.
Rules of civil conversation is a website designed to help visitors better understand how to have a civil conversation despite differing opinions. One of the resources on the site is a poster set of the eight rules of civil conversation. These posters are free to download and print to display in your classroom. (Print versions are also available for purchase).
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