This yr, People are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. That assertion of foundational political ideas and nationwide id in the summertime of 1776 capped off a yr of armed battle marked by the primary pictures at Lexington and Harmony, the surprising British casualties at Bunker’s Hill, and the following siege of Boston within the spring and summer season of 1775. These conflicts noticed the ascent of George Washington to the workplace of Commander in Chief of the Continental Military — the primary nationwide workplace held by the person who would earn the best to be known as the daddy of our nation. Like the best of statesmen, Washington proved equally able to defending his nation in struggle and of governing it in peace.
On Sept. 10, 2025, tragedy struck Utah Valley College, the place I train. On the time, my colleagues and I have been internet hosting Junior ROTC cadets from across the state for the primary of a collection of Structure Day occasions on the theme of George Washington’s constitutional legacy. Washington’s instance of braveness, moderation, knowledge and civic charity are at all times related fashions for American college students. However that day, the significance of virtuous civic management within the face of threats to American prosperity and freedom was visceral and poignant.
For academics, navigating People’ deep disagreements within the classroom feels dangerous. Early survey proof means that the assassination of Charlie Kirk has solely elevated the strain. Fairly than sparking a renewed dedication to open dialogue, Kirk’s killing has intensified the silence.
In accordance with an October 2025 survey of school college students from the Basis for Particular person Rights and Expression (FIRE), a notable portion of scholars have turn into much less snug expressing their views on controversial subjects at school (45 %), in widespread campus areas (43 %), and on social media (48 %), after what occurred to Kirk.
A basic may appear to be an odd mannequin for civil discourse following such a tragic occasion, however within the American expertise, our best army leaders furnish useful examples. With Washington, this isn’t tough to see.
On the most simple degree, Washington’s regular devotion to the rule of legislation and constitutional self-government is foundational to People’ capacity to navigate our political variations. All of us function underneath the identical framework — the Structure — and should adhere to it as our widespread bond, at the same time as we search to enhance it and navigate our variations and disagreements concerning the widespread good.
Washington lived out this dedication in his conduct at Newburgh in 1783 when he put down a budding coup by his personal disgruntled officers and later when he twice laid apart unparalleled government energy, first as commander in chief and later as president of the USA.
In his farewell deal with on the finish of his lengthy public service he pressed house the significance of constitutional constancy because the bedrock of American citizenship.
“The idea of our political programs is the best of the folks to make and to change their constitutions of presidency,” he wrote. “However the Structure which at any time exists, until modified by an specific and genuine act of the entire folks, is sacredly compulsory upon all.”
Navigating Disagreement With Respect
At a extra sensible degree, Washington navigated fixed opposition to his command of the Continental military with grace. As president, he presided over a cupboard riven by political division, and even private animosity. He spoke to his fellow residents throughout essential variations in a manner that reminded them of their widespread American citizenship and their widespread humanity. His letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport is a mannequin.
However much more essential than Washington’s capacity to speak what he held in widespread along with his fellow residents was his capacity to try this whereas disagreeing with them basically. Whereas famously skeptical of political events, Washington was not one to dodge controversy. He wouldn’t sacrifice his view of the widespread good for the sake of avoiding an argument.
Washington’s willingness to contend for his ideas serves as an essential lesson to college students and academics of civic training: civil discourse doesn’t imply avoiding disagreement. It doesn’t imply giving up or surrendering our convictions. It doesn’t imply hiding or concealing our objections to legal guidelines or insurance policies or concepts merely for the sake of sustaining the looks of settlement and civility.
It’s simple to lament our fractured discourse. However as academics and educators, we should work to restore it. College leaders and directors ought to actively assist civil discourse and defend the educators who train it, in addition to present a discussion board for college kids who wish to specific their views. Fostering this braveness isn’t about asking college students to be martyrs for his or her beliefs. It’s about making a constructive atmosphere for productive disagreement.
For strong civil discourse, you will need to domesticate braveness, humility and civic charity. To foster braveness, academics can scaffold strong debate by beginning with dialogue subjects that decrease the social danger of talking after which constructing as much as more difficult questions, so that every pupil has an opportunity to be heard. To instill humility, the primary object of discourse must be on understanding an issue from all sides moderately than settling a debate. Humility requires a recognition that we could also be improper, or on the very least that we definitely have one thing extra to be taught. Human beings are finite and infrequently have an entire understanding of the query at hand.
Nurturing Humility and Reasoning Abilities
Lecturers can nurture civic charity by framing classroom debates as a collaborative, not confrontational, method to an answer. The parliamentary mannequin of addressing the chair moderately than people in a debate may help college students to see their friends not as enemies however as companions working in the direction of a standard aim.
College students ought to at all times be pressed to “metal man” arguments, even for positions they don’t maintain. This builds mental humility, sharpens reasoning expertise, and detaches contentious concepts from the individuals who maintain them. Intellectually critical and fact-based comparisons between our current and the previous are indispensable. Flippant dismissals of opposing views as fascist and communist won’t advance the truth-seeking enterprise.
In different phrases, we will train them to be like Washington, who used civil disagreement amongst his cupboard members to formulate compromises the place attainable and to proceed with selections on controversial issues having handled all sides with due respect the place compromise shouldn’t be attainable.
I’ve up to now prompt technique of supporting civil discourse within the midst of our current divisions and about these points that divide People. However maybe an important factor we do for college kids as civic educators is to assist them step exterior our present political divisions. Our founding ideas and establishments type a pre-partisan constitutional inheritance that was crafted lengthy earlier than the left-right ideological frameworks and red-blue partisan divides we ham-handedly use to place ourselves in political tribes got here into style.
Analyzing our nation’s historic debates over how greatest to stay as much as our constitutional ideas engages college students with eventualities and questions for which their present partisan frameworks don’t present a transparent reply. It reminds them, as Washington sought to do in his farewell deal with, of the inheritance they maintain in widespread with one another as People.
