or DISCOURSE DISCOURSE DELIBERATION? Students Participate in
Empowering Female Voices Civic Engagement Program for Girls
By Erika Page, History Teacher y most cherished holiday memories are of sitting around the dinner table and discussing the world and how we interact with it. Although I sometimes needed lessons in how to deliberate rather than debate, those discussions have always been invaluable. As a teacher, I strive to provide my students with the same kind of supportive and safe space, and I knew immediately that Empowering Female Voices would be just that.
M
Empowering Female Voices (EFV) is an initiative from the Close Up Foundation and the Hockaday Institute for Social Impact. Inspired by the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women’s suffrage and with the aim “to help students develop empathy for the perspectives of others and build the skills and confidence to empower a generation of female change-makers by engaging girls from
16 Foxcroft Magazine
different backgrounds in meaningful
met twice a week for six weeks. There
dialogue,” this program is perfectly
were six online workshops, each followed
aligned with Foxcroft’s 2020-21 co-
by debriefing sessions with fellow history
curricular theme, “Use Your Voice for
teacher John Scharfenberg and me.
Good: Civic Service and Social Action.” The first session was a great introduction Seniors Elsie Rose and Hays Turner,
to civil discourse — specifically the
sophomores Avery Hazard, Danielle
difference between debate (a forum
Perkins, and Olivia Warr, and freshmen Sarah Ford, Sofia Ring, and Mimi Walker
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