Nationally Distributed AP Story Notes DePauw Efforts to Teach Civility

March 13, 2017

An Associated Press story headlined "As incivility hits new depths, many are working to combat it" notes, "In state capitals, lawmakers attend workshops on how to avoid demonizing their opponents. On a college campus, students re-enact hard-fought debates that led to great compromises at the country's founding. Even a summer camp is aiming to give children the tools to show respect in the face of disagreement."

Matt Sedensky writes, "Civility efforts have even stretched outside of academia and government into less likely arenas. In Greencastle, Indiana, organizers are preparing for a new summer camp where children will be exposed to elementary philosophy, taught to talk about their values and to listen to competing outlooks. Andrew Cullison, who is leading camp planning as director of the Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University, said the goal is to get the first- to fifth-grade participants talking respectfully about their opinions on a range of issues. If they can learn to be composed in, say, a discussion over whether vanilla or chocolate is better, they Andy Cullison may be able to translate that skill when they later face disagreement on a weightier topic, like politics."

"They sort of realize, the way I was talking about ice cream is the way I can talk about Trump," Dr. Cullison said.says.

The article is appearing in newspapers across America, including the Salt Lake Tribune. Access it via Yahoo! News.

Andy Cullison is a 2001 graduate of DePauw.

The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE), the largest practical and professional ethics association in the nation, recently announced that it will make the Prindle Institute its home.

The Prindle Institute for Ethics -- where students and faculty engage in critical and constructive reflection about right and wrong, justice and injustice, and good and evil -- recently received a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for Humanities to conduct a comprehensive study as part of a new "Value of Ethics and Moral Reasoning in Business" research project. Read more here.