Join us for an interactive in-person discussion about what we learned in civics class as kids, what students are learning about civics today, and what type of civic education we need to strengthen our democracy in the future.

Civics educator and consultant Dan Sigward, MDI Historical Society intern and researcher Sabrina Calas, and Pathways to Restorative Communities’ Rebecca Taplin, will lead and participate in this highly interactive session to share insights on the nation’s current state of civic education and the trends that point toward the future.

This program is a collaboration between the Northeast Harbor Library and the Mount Desert Island Historical Society. It will be offered in person and will be recorded for later viewing.

Dan Sigward is an independent educational consultant with expertise in developing curricula that help young people build the historical understanding and civic skills necessary to sustain our democracy. He specializes in creating curricula that examine the individual and collective choices people made during pivotal moments in history and our contemporary civic life. A former middle school social studies teacher, Dan worked at Facing History & Ourselves for over ten years, where he researched, wrote, and edited classroom resources that covered the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, the Reconstruction Era in the United States, the Civil Rights Movement, and various other topics. As a consultant, he has collaborated with numerous organizations—including StoryCorps, PBS Learning Media, Literacy Design Collaborative, the Fred T. Korematsu Institute, and others—that are committed to inspiring young people to become knowledgeable, active, and engaged citizens.

Image: “Longfellow School students 1944,” Great Cranberry Island Historical Society, https://gcihs.digitalarchive.us/items/show/703.