Background:

“In 2020, Glenn Cort sat down to write his youngest son a birthday card as he was heading off to college. Glenn had become worried that the world was changing in ways that he couldn’t understand. He was teaching a high school class and a general sense of societal noise and confusion dominated his classroom. Everyone could feel it, but nobody could place a finger on what it was. Feeling at a loss and unable to complete his letter to his son, he left his “day job” and set out on an exploration for any sources of truth which could explain what was happening and maybe even answer a question that had long been bothering him; why is it that people should struggle to get along so badly, and for so long?  

After several years of research he emerged more optimistic than ever. Having grown certain of finding recurring themes and patterns across cultures and time that represent pure objective truth, he was able to complete that birthday card. It became a book, Letters To Mikey, Messages of Hope and Optimism for Young Americans, which is the framework for this curriculum. 

Description and Goals:

This course aims to provide a pedagogical structure to teach teenagers how and why we struggle to get along, particularly in America, and what we can do to improve things.  It synthesizes leading information across disciplines concerning loss of natural affection for others, polarization, extremism and hate. Its goals are to help young people understand their natural born goodness; to rally around their commonalities and better navigate their differences. 

Designed to supplement high school social studies courses, and to be provided in clubs, camps, non-profits, places of worship, or in family and community gatherings, it provides a future generation with a life raft which they could cling to!  

Program Length and Resources

The core program can be taught in approximately eight hours. 2 sessions each of 4 hours, with recommended refreshment breaks in between. This assumes instructors have read the books given with the curriculum, as well have familiarized themselves with all materials. There are twelve modules. Introduction Module, Ten “Main Ingredient” Modules, and a Conclusion Module. It is recommended that this program be extended so that students also read the books offered in full, and all cited resources. Lastly, we suggest and hope that the curriculum runs concurrently with full semester courses, at the high school level, including but not limited to social studies, civics, or American History. 

Materials Provided:

• Letters To Mikey, Messages of Hope and Optimism For Young Americans, by Glenn Cort

• 5000 Year Leap, Eric Skousen

• If You Can Keep It, Eric Metaxas

• American Presidents,  are included in the curriculum.

• Also included is a physical “Ingredient Wheel” (used in the ending module), as well as “completion pins.” There is a discussion blog about the book and this curriculum, which seeks input at the Getting Along Academy Substack.

Program Design and Delivery:

This curriculum has been designed to speak common sense to chaos without being judgy, preachy, political or religious. As such, it does not underestimate the natural born intelligence of its audience. Rather it contends based on scientific and evidentiary underpinnings that each of us are born with an uncanny sense of right and wrong. Therefore, while the materials will arm teachers and facilitators with the most credible, and proven “ingredients” which lead to misunderstanding and loss of trust between our fellow human beings, the concepts should be very familiar to instructors and facilitators. They are the most well researched, established, talked about and debated topics related to the subject matter. Therefore, the design of the course calls upon instructors to create a curriculum within a curriculum. They are to explore the concepts within each module and to use their judgement to decide which pieces they read directly from the script, or paraphrase, supplementing, modifying and adjusting, while keeping with the overall core message of the curriculum. Lastly, it is important to note that the whole of the curriculum is far more meaningful than the sum of its pieces. In the end, having tied it all together, a properly delivered lesson should culminate with potentially world changing knowledge and perspective. 

Kindly note, there are programming and suggestions for teachers notes throughout the curriculum, which are placed in italics. Programming notes will begin at the start of Module One.

Use of Participation Cards:

In an effort to keep this program interactive, thought-provoking, and fun, we pass out 4 x 6” Participation Cards. Wherever there are bullets, you will see a reminder programming note to hand out Participation Cards in advance.  Please have students rotate and read one bullet per student, slowly and clearly. The rotation resumes throughout the curriculum. Where you see the note All Together Participation, please lead the whole class in reading that bullet aloud in unison. We understand this may seem corny, but please work through it.

Use of Discussion Quotations:

At the end of each module, you will find several quotations. These have been thoughtfully selected to stimulate discussion about the information in the module. Please draw on quotations and the core concepts within the module before moving ahead to the next section.

Use of Ingredient Wheel: