On September 10, 2025, civics educator and consultant Dan Sigward, MDI Historical Society intern and researcher Sabrina Calas, and Pathways to Restorative Communities’ Rebecca Taplin led and participated in a 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 took place at the Northeast Harbor Library. Circle discussions have been edited out of the recording for privacy and viewing continuity.

Dan 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.