EDUCATION NONPROFIT THINKING NATION TAKES ADDITIONAL STEPS TO ADVANCE PLURALISM, REDUCE POLARIZATION, SO STUDENTS ARE EMPOWERED, PREPARED FOR CIVIC SUCCESS

In Response to School Demand, Curriculum and Resources Now Available for Mid-Year Implementation; Plan to Create Open Educational Resources That Foster Historical Thinking Underway

NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Dec. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- With ballots counted and results finalized, election season is over, yet America remains a polarized nation. Thinking Nation, a national 501(c)(3) committed to empowering students to thrive as engaged and critical thinkers for the future of democracy, today announced additional steps it is taking to advance pluralism and reduce polarization so today's social studies students are empowered with the skills and dispositions necessary for success tomorrow.

Pluralism refers to the recognition and inclusion of multiple perspectives, experiences, and voices in understanding history and society. By advancing pluralism in classrooms, students are encouraged to critically examine and appreciate the diverse factors–ethnic, racial, religious, economic, and social–that have shaped historical events. This discipline of historical thinking engages students and helps them learn to contextualize information, assess the multi-layered causes of moments, evaluate the evidence they encounter, and empathize with the perspectives of others. As students develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the past and its relevance to contemporary issues, they equip themselves for success in a diverse society and contribution to our democracy.

In response to demand from schools with limited resources and budgets, Thinking Nation has made its social studies curriculum, assessments, and resources available for mid-academic year implementation (vs. full year only) with $5 student subscriptions. Through Dec. 31, 2024, schools can purchase student subscriptions and earn educators one free hour of professional development.

In addition, Thinking Nation announced its plan to make a key part of its platform open access, free, and accessible to every school in the country. The platform utilizes embedded AI to measure and track student growth in key skills and dispositions necessary for civic and life success. These free resources will address educational inequity and provide every school with a very clear framework to provide social studies education as a vital discipline for active and informed citizenship.

Thinking Nation's materials emphasize active listening, contextualization, assessment, evaluation, and empathy so students are prepared to interact with perspectives of those holding both similar and competing conclusions. These dispositions, at the core of historical thinking, embody pluralism, the antidote to polarization. 

"Given that the chief aim of the historian is to understand people from a time and place not like our own, cultivating historical thinkers directly translates to being a thoughtful and engaged citizen in the present," said Thinking Nation Executive Director Zachary Coté. "In pluralism, as with the study of the past, we do not need to agree with others to humanize them. We can ask tough questions without boiling into rage. We can collaborate on tasks without holding identical values. We can compromise."

For more information on Thinking Nation's innovative approach to fostering historical thinking in social studies education or to implement mid-year student subscriptions at your school, visit thinkingnation.org/demo.

About Thinking Nation
Thinking Nation is a national 501(c)(3) committed to empowering students to thrive as engaged and critical thinkers by supporting teachers with meaningful curricula, training, and technology to transform social studies education for the future of democracy. We believe that education is our greatest equalizer, and that every student, regardless of zip code or socio-economic background, deserves access to learning practices that reflect the diversity of identities, histories, contributions, and experiences to support enriched educational opportunity, equity, and success for all. Thinking Nation currently serves more than 35,000 students in 16 states and the District of Columbia. For more information about Thinking Nation or to support the organization's work to transform social studies classrooms across the country, please visit thinkingnation.org/donate. 

Media Contacts
Laura Wessells and Martha Holler
ShinePR for Thinking Nation, [email protected] 

SOURCE Thinking Nation