Our ethos

Don’t Divide Us offers educational outreach sessions that introduce pupils to ideas and questions that prompt further and deeper thinking. In a culture that too often is pre-occupied with the faddish and superficial, Don’t Divide Us educators believe that our common rich store of knowledge across the disciplines can be fruitfully brought to bear on contemporary issues. Being able to reflect on your own views, judge the views of others and interrogate orthodoxies with growing impartiality, but always in a civil manner, are important parts of a broad liberal education.

Our offer

We work with teachers to create structured discussions based on principles of dialogic teaching. The specific themes and content could broadly fit categories of liberal values of freedom and tolerance, and contemporary issues. The content is multidisciplinary, and lessons are shaped individually, in consultation with the class teacher and according to specific requirements of the school.

An Example

We recently provided a 90-minute enrichment lesson at Strode College in Surrey on the issue of freedom of speech. The lesson drew on Greek philosophy and we explored how some key classical concept can help shed light on questions contemporary controversies such as whether teachers should show material in schools that some find offensive on religious grounds. Here are the tutor’s comments:

‘The session that Don’t Divide Us completed for my college was truly exceptional. My students were encouraged to interrogate their own viewpoints via reference to philosophical ideas and insight from independent minded educationalists. All were engaged by this process, and it seems for many it was transformative. I could not recommend a session of this nature to any school or college more wholeheartedly. The capacity that the Don’t Divide Us team offer for young people to develop their critical thinking through the questioning of dominant narratives is invaluable.’

–John Marrill, Gifted and Talented Coordinator, Strode College, Surrey.

If you would like to find out more, please get in touch at team@dontdivideus.com FAO Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert (DDU coordinator and educational advisor), and, subject to location and availability of DDU educators, we can create a lesson or lessons in light of your requirements.