On October 2, Thinking Nation held its first-ever Gala at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA. To say it was a lot of work to host would honestly be an understatement. To say it went amazingly would, well…. also be an understatement.
Wow, what an extraordinary night of meeting new faces, catching up with longtime supporters, celebrating with partners, honoring teachers, commemorating America’s 250th birthday, and so much more. Sometimes, it’s good to pause and reflect on the things we’ve done so we can rally enough energy to continue, and deepen, the work. For me, the Gala served as one of those moments. As a form of reflection, I thought I’d highlight some of the great moments from the night.
First, during cocktail hour, we had two exhibits for attendees. In the weeks leading up to event, we sent prompts and stationery to some of our partner schools throughout the country for students to fill out. Students could write or draw a response to the question: What does being a good citizen mean to you? The responses were so sincere and filled with hope.
Students care about their communities, showing kindness and empathy, and looking out for those that need looking out for. Their answers did not highlight civic facts of knowing checks and balances or other systems of government. While important knowledge, the students were interested in the uniquely human aspects of a civic society. They believed it was important to embody certain dispositions. Of course, these civic dispositions are what we strive to cultivate in students through historical thinking.
The second exhibit was specifically for our attendees. We established our very own Wish Wall, a concept coined by our friends at Made By Us. Attendees could write what their wishes for American democracy are in both the near and distant future. Seeing teachers, parents, business people, nonprofit leaders, and other community members think intentionally about their wishes for democracy was encouraging and continued to cement a theme that occurred throughout the night: civic hope.
The second moving moment of the night was premiering our new short video highlighting our work as an organization. The Thinking Nation team pours so much heart and soul into our organization to empower students and transform social studies education for the future of democracy. Seeing that work displayed on the big screen was such a sweet moment. We’ve now uploaded the video to our Youtube channel, and I’d love for you to watch it.
The pinnacle of the night came with our keynote speaker, Jon Meacham. Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian who shared a lifetime of reflections and insights into what makes democracy tick and how we can pursue our “better angels” in the protection of our own constitutional democracy. His final reflections not only most impacted me but are clearly tied directly to the work we do as an organization. Meacham closed by calling us to embody curiosity, candor, and empathy in civil society. I couldn’t agree more.
We make it our mission to cultivate thinking citizens that exercise their curiosity through our inquiry-based curriculum, candor through our emphasis on contextualization and evaluating evidence, and empathy by giving regular practice to students to evaluate perspectives and practice historical empathy.
There is a lot more to say about such a special night, (including our announcement of an exciting new grant we won that we can formally announce soon) but I will do something I rarely do—let the pictures speak for themselves!
Thank you for your support of our small, but mighty, organization.