Send us a text One would think that schools are the perfect place for students to learn about elections. What better opportunity to use the critical thinking skills they’ve learned in making sense of what the candidates are saying and to distinguish credible information from what they often encounter on social and mainstream media? These skills wou…

Send us a text This episode will interest anyone interested in what it takes to successfully lead a politically diverse school board (or any such organization) in these highly polarized times. My guest, Dr. Katy Anthes, did just that as Colorado’s Commissioner of Education from 2016 to 2023 by building trust, getting leaders to agree on norms about…

Send us a text Ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a school shooter? Or, why someone chooses to kill innocent people? My guest, Aaron Stark, was ready to commit mass murder but decided, at the last minute, not to follow through with his plan. He also chose not to kill himself. In this episode, you’ll hear Aaron’s harrowing story of abuse, negle…

Send us a text One day after interviewing clinical psychologist Hayley Watson for Part 1 of this two-part series about the need for better mental health support in schools, Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia walked onto campus with a military-style rifle and killed two other students and two math teachers. …

Send us a text Immediately following the fatal shooting of two students and two math teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia, the predictable debate over gun laws ensued. Less prominent were calls for another remedy for school gun violence that can have an immediate impact and, surprisingly, is not politically polarizing: mental health support…

Send us a text Rich Harwood knows a thing or two about depolarizing communities. He’s been doing it—successfully—for over 30 years, which is why I wanted to probe his thinking about the widening divides and the worrisome rise of culture wars that are threatening our public schools. Let me simply say, Rich rocked my world! Despite the extensive read…

Send us a text This is the first of three episodes about the unusual steps school leaders in Middletown, Ohio took to defuse tensions over race issues and health policies. These tensions could have led to a full-blown culture war - the kind of knock-down, drag out clashes that have pitted educators, parents, and even students against one another in…

Send us a text In this second of three episodes about a culture war simmering in Middletown, Ohio, we learn how Superintendent Styles responds to allegations of racism and violations of students’ rights because of health mandates. Hint: He didn’t fight back. Instead, he listened to his critics. He then asked for help from the community’s “quiet maj…

Send us a text In the final episode of this series, several people reflect on the lessons learned from Middletown’s successful efforts to avoid a costly culture war and to unify around an inclusive vision of education that all of its students. In addition to Middletown’s community leaders who share their takeaways from this story, Amanda Ripley, an…

Send us a text This podcast usually focuses on how adults can have less contentious, more fruitful conversations about schools, but my two guests on this episode have plenty to say about the need to strengthen communication and relationships among young people. In fact, Nina Murphy and Kellie Dromboski (along with Maurice Elias) have written a book…

Send us a text It’s April 2024. Polarization in America is at an all-time high, and another highly contentious election season is fast approaching. Fears about teacher bias and the undue influence they might have over their students has raised suspicions among parents and has led several states to restrict what teachers can discuss with their stude…

Send us a text When Daniel Buck’s article, “In Defense of the Education Culture Wars,” appeared in my news feed, I thought, Is this guy kidding? Is he seriously arguing that the culture wars are a good thing for schools? Turns out he was, which made me think, I have to get this guy on my show. Buck agreed to join me, and what you’ll hear in this co…

Send us a text Since 2020, nearly 20 states have passed legislation prohibiting public school educators from teaching “divisive concepts” or any content that might cause students to feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” because of their race or sex. Florida and several other states have also adopted new polic…

Send us a text According to a recent Washington Post article, homeschooling is the fastest growing form of education in America. As many as 2.7 million students are currently being homeschooled. One of my guests, Heidi Sampson, is a veteran homeschooling parent from Maine and a four-term Republican legislator. She concedes that homeschooling is not…

Send us a text Most of us have opinions about transgender people and, perhaps, about the controversial policies affecting transgender students - like ones requiring teachers to notify parents if their students are using names that do not match their birth gender. But few of us have ever had a real, in-depth conversation with a transgender person wh…

Send us a text In Part 2 of this story, high school students and a parent discuss their experiences participating in an innovative program called SEND (Student Empathy Network for Diversity) designed by Compton High School teacher, Jason Morgan, to strengthen relationships among students and parents from different parts of Los Angeles. (Listen to P…

Send us a text In Part 1 of this story, Jason Morgan, a high school math teacher from Compton, California, describes the innovative program he created called SEND (Student Empathy Network for Diversity) that was designed to strengthen relationships among students and parents in different parts of Los Angeles. “I was talking with my neighbor during …

Send us a text Racist acts on school campuses are rising fast. Incidents of hate crimes and physical attacks with a weapon nearly doubled between the 2015-16 and 2017-18 school years. In the 2017-18 school year, schools reported nearly 6,000 hate crimes, according to the US Government Accountability Office. These are criminal acts, not what some pe…

Send us a text In part 2 of this episode, host Ken Futernick continues his conversation with author Stephanie Krauss about Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and her new book, Whole Child, Whole Life. They explore the growing pushback from conservative policy organizations, like the American Enterprise Institute, and from parent rights advocates like …

Send us a text Host Ken Futernick speaks with Stephanie Krauss, author of the new book, Whole Child, Whole Life - 10 Ways to Help Kids Live, Learn, and Thrive. In Part I of this episode, Krauss, a former teacher with years of experience doing social work, explains why she wrote the book and why it’s especially relevant right now for parents and edu…

Send us a text Host Ken Futernick and his guests strive for civil dialogue around a contentious debate playing out across the country: What rights should parents of public school students have when it comes to what’s taught, the books students have access to, and the policies educators must follow? Ken’s guests, which include parents, a high school…

Send us a text Antisemitism in America is on the rise. In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League reported a 50% increase in antisemitic acts in schools over the previous year. In this episode, two students from Montgomery County, Maryland discuss the impact of recent antisemitic acts at their high school. One of them, Rachel Barold, was the target of a p…

Send us a text Peter Coleman, a renowned expert on constructive conflict resolution, shares valuable insights about the sharp rise of polarization in America and the divisive culture wars that plague our schools. He is the authorof the book, The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization. After decades of political division, Coleman says Americans…

Send us a text What role should schools play when it comes to gender and sexuality? What books should students have access to? What topics should teachers and students be able to discuss? What kind of support should LGBTQ students be able to expect from their schools? These questions have become the focus of intense debate among parents, educators,…

Send us a text In 2021-22, 138 school districts in 32 states banned more than 2500 books, affecting close to 4 million students. according to EdWeek. In some cases, books are removed because they are deemed by some to be pornographic. In other cases, book bans were prompted by themes considered inappropriate by local decision-makers. Forty-one perc…

Send us a text In the end, nobody wins the culture wars, says journalist Monica Guzman. The surprising key to overcoming these conflicts is to become curious rather than confrontational — to reframe the us/them confusion with complexity. Guzman also urges us to reject the easy answers — the sense of certainty many of us feel that we have all of the…

Send us a text Weston Brown was homeschooled in Dallas, Texas and had limited access to the internet, books, television, and the outside world. At age 24, he mustered the courage to tell his parents that he was gay. Their reaction was not unexpected, he said. “They thought that I was mentally ill or demonically possessed.” Brown had no intentions o…

Send us a text Remember the classroom discussions of current events and controversial topics? They were opportunities to learn what was happening in the world, hear opposing perspectives, and formulate our own opinions. Recently, however, several states have passed laws restricting these discussions. In some cases, teachers are forbidden from discu…

Send us a text Best-selling author Amanda Ripley has devoted much of her career studying and writing about conflict. In this interview, Ripley suggests ways to respond to the “conflict entrepreneurs” that are fueling the culture wars in education, and she explains what it will take to shift from “high conflict” – the kind that wreaks havoc on relat…

Send us a text America’s culture wars are driving great teachers out of the classroom, exacerbating a shortage that has reached critical levels in most states. The story of Willie Carver, an English and French high school teacher from Kentucky, is especially tragic. He was selected as the state’s teacher of the year in 2022 and honored recently wit…

Send us a text SInce 2022 the number of new bills affecting LGBTQ students and how teachers are allowed to talk and teach about issues related to gender and sexual identity have skyrocketed. These bills and the larger question of the school’s role regarding to gender and sexual identity have generated considerable controversy among educators, paren…

Send us a text High school students on Kentucky’s Student Voice Team discuss findings and recommendations in their report, "Race to Learn." But many of these students are frustrated because some of their recommendations cannot be implemented because of restrictions in new state laws.על ידי Ken Futernick

Send us a text Never before have Americans been so deeply divided about how history, current events, and controversial issues should be discussed in our public schools. At the center of these debates are questions about race and racism – what exactly students should learn about these concepts, how the concepts should be taught, and what the outcome…

Send us a text Critics charge that teachers are indoctrinating their students with left-wing ideology on a variety of issues - how history is taught, the books they are allowed to read, and how students learn about gender and sexual identity. In this episode, I ask my guests to define what it means to indoctrinate, say whether it's always wrong, an…