ABOUT COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS: Community Connections is a lesson collection designed for adult learners and community colleges, with the goal of inspiring student civic action. This might be respectful debate or conversation about a local issue, planning a community event, or a creative project that helps connect local, national and global issues.

To use this lesson: First, watch the video and answer the questions below as a warm up. Next, choose one or more of the activities under "Take Action" that best fits your classroom. Or, use the segment above to inspire your own original classroom activities — the spirit of these lessons is to connect current events to actions that make your community a better place for everyone!

SUMMARY

The assassination of Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to the ways Americans debate and engage in political dialogue. Kirk was known for his back-and-forth conversations with students and moments that often went viral. Judy Woodruff reports on the spectacle that debate has become in the U.S. and what it means for our ability to disagree. It’s part of her series, America at a Crossroads.

View the transcript of the story.

WARM-UP QUESTIONS

1. Who is Michael Lee, and what is his background?
2. What is the purpose of Lee's Civility Initiative?
3. Where and When did debate become a formal topic of education?
4. How does failure of debate lead to polarization, according to Lee?
5. Why did Jason Y. Lee create Jubilee?

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• Do you think it's true that debate and conversation across political differences have the power to reduce hostility and polarization? Why or why not?
• What are two or three rules for debate that you think would help lower hostility and lead to productive conversations across political divides?

Media literacy: Do you think in-person debates or conversations are different than debates designed for social media? If so, what is the difference?

TAKE ACTION

Here's your chance to debate debate itself. Do you think viral media debates help or hurt residents of a community come to a mutual understanding of each other's positions?

Use this activity to debate the media's role in polarization. Or, host a respectful debate of your own an a separate topic using this activity.

Use these guidelines if you want to record and share your debate.

You can also watch and discuss the classic debate in the segment below.

This segment mentions a famous debate that took place at the Cambridge Union between author James Baldwin and pundit William F. Buckley. The debate centered on race in America, and is perhaps one of the most famous debates of the 20th century. Watch a few minutes of the debate, or all of it if there is time. Then as a class, discuss —

• Did this debate seem to lower hostility or polarization? Did either participant seek to lower polarization? If so, what is an example?
• Why do you think this debate is so well known?
• Do you think audiences would be interested in extended debates on a single topic like this today?

This project was funded under the 2024 Leonore Annenberg Civic Mission of the Nation Initiative, sponsored by the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics. LAIC is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

To provide feedback on News Hour Classroom's resources, including this lesson, click here.