For the third time since the fall of 2020, Pingry welcomed Dr. Peter Horn to the Basking Ridge Campus in late October to speak with employees and students about civil discourse. His appearance is part of the School’s ongoing commitment to providing a safe and productive learning environment for students—the goal is to help students learn how to engage as citizens of a democracy and encourage open and respectful dialogue about values and beliefs.
Formerly an English teacher for 18 years in addition to being a school leader for seven years, Dr. Horn saw the value of civil discourse in his work as a teacher. “Literature and current events were ways to examine thornier social issues across race, class, sex, and gender,” he says. After 9/11 and then when students’ siblings were serving in the military, he and a few other teachers created an after-school forum for anyone to attend, providing a space for reflection. Those forums continued to take place after major events.
Then, after earning a doctorate in Educational and Organizational Leadership a decade ago, he wanted to “leverage what I had learned in the doctoral program and throughout my career for the greatest benefit of a greater number of schools.” He became an education consultant and includes civil discourse among his specialties. “I recognized, over the course of that work, that this [reflection] served an important purpose. It was all too rare outside of this structured space…so it’s important for schools to provide spaces to be intentional [about this].” His outside perspective is intended to support Pingry in this area.
Asked what he perceives as the source of the problem that makes this part of his work necessary, Dr. Horn highlights “discourse on social media” and “social media videos.” His approach with students is to tell them, “Here’s why [civil discourse] is hard—not just for you, but for us, as people—but here’s something that you could do to respond.”
For his 2024 visit, Dr. Horn spent more time with Middle School students, including Grade 8 history classes. He asked the classes to consider the meaning of the word “political”; what issue they care the most about; and what makes it easier or harder to talk about something they care about. His parting message: set boundaries for your conversations.
“The ability to have a respectful conversation is critical,” he says. “It’s an important part of intellectual educational development, but it’s also important for families and relationships. We have to be able to take into account the viewpoints of people who don’t see things the same way we do, and we need to get past this very narrow vision that says, ‘I’m right and you’re evil.’”
Contact: Greg Waxberg ’96, Communications Writer, Editor of The Pingry Review