Schools can help our nation heal after this bruising election

This bruising presidential election is finally over, and it has taken a toll on our country and all of us in it. In particular, our youth have witnessed growing polarization and political vitriol, and they were already in a bad way, facing unprecedented levels of mental health problems. Schools have a major role to play in supporting them as we move forward. One way they can do this, and contribute to strengthening our democracy, is to engage students in civic reasoning and discourse at school.

The National Academy of Education defines civic reasoning and discourse as the rigorous examination of evidence and multiple perspectives around meaningful personal and societal issues to seek consensus or compromise on the issues through discussion and debate. These are essential capacities youth must develop to sustain a functioning and equitable democratic society, and so should be among the central aims of education—now more than ever. Additionally, new research shows that, because it is at once cognitively difficult and deeply emotionally powerful, engaging in civic reasoning supports healthy brain development in adolescents, which in turn predicts life satisfaction and achievement in young adulthood.

But what does civic reasoning and discourse look like in classrooms? One example is when a group of eighth graders in New York City and another in rural Virginia come together through writing letters and virtual meet-ups. As they learn about each other’s daily lives, they begin to see how “blue” and “red” communities in this country are similar and how they are different. By the end of the unit, they have read common texts and critically explored their perspectives on a topic that is important to them, such as gun rights.

Another example is when high school math students in Los Angeles apply statistical methods to a social issue they’ve identified, such as income and wealth distribution. They analyze trends over time and look at variables such as geographic location and workers’ rights laws in different states, as well as people’s education levels, gender, race and ethnicity. They present and debate what they find, which leads to deeper discussions about the values and intentions behind policies.

Aside from the academic and social skills students are building through this work, why are these classroom experiences so formative and essential for students? Civic reasoning develops youths’ abilities to think about the broader and longer-term implications of situations and issues. Such reasoning helps students think about multiple perspectives on issues and to wrestle with the complexity of real-world situations. And it does so in a way that feels deeply personally meaningful to youth. Civic reasoning, in other words, relies on what we are calling “transcendent” thinking—thinking that moves students to transcend current circumstances and specifics to search for deeper understanding, personal relevance, and possible solutions.

At the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (CANDLE) we are showing that transcendent thinking also shapes brain development in beneficial ways. In a five-year study published in Scientific Reports, we interviewed 65 diverse high school students about their reactions to true stories of teens’ compelling situations around the world. We also scanned the students’ brains that day, and again two years later, and followed the students into young adulthood. The more the students reflected on the bigger civic issues at stake–that is, the more they demonstrated transcendent thinking and reported being strongly emotionally engaged–the more the students had grown their brains when they returned for the second scan. In turn, those students who grew their brains more, from the first to the second neuroimaging scan, showed stronger identity development in their late teen years, measured as the degree to which a teen reported that they think about who they are and what they stand for, and about the kind of adult they would like to become. As young adults, they reported better life satisfaction, relationships, and achievement. Importantly, the results of our study were not related to IQ, socio-economic status, gender, or ethnic background.

This brain growth likely happens because, as teens reflect on civic issues, they coordinate brain systems involved in focused attention and planning, memory, emotion, and reflection—the same brain networks involved in creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, learning, self-awareness, self-control, and ethical judgment. Notably, the patterns of brain growth identified seem to be the opposite of patterns associated in recent clinical research with adolescents’ development of mood disorders, depression, and anxiety. This may also be why the students’ transcendent thinking in our study helped to protect their brains against the negative impacts of witnessing neighborhood violence and crime. Ultimately, transcendent thinking for the teen brain may be like physical exercise for the body: The more they do it, the more they strengthen their social and cognitive skills, which also produces a myriad of collateral benefits.

With such clear benefits to our teens and to our civic landscape, we owe it to ourselves, to our youth, and to our country, to build more opportunities for civic reasoning and discourse into America’s schools. You may be thinking that our culture wars have already overtaken school board meetings and that “the other side” would never go for this. But everyone wants their voice to be heard, and their identities and experiences to be understood and valued. Our youth desperately want this too, and schools can help them share, empathize, and learn across their differences while critically examining issues that matter to them and to our collective future. Even if we can’t imagine ourselves having these conversations right now as adults, this is our time to step back from the brink–to let our youth think transcendently and take on the conversations that will secure the future of our democracy.