Council of Chief State School Officers PURPLE Screening and Discussion

*Restricted Attendance. PURPLE — a new short documentary from political mediation organization Resetting the Table (RTT) and Emmy-Award-winning Transient Pictures — tells the story of everyday Americans with opposing viewpoints addressing their differences head-on. Designed to build greater empathy and recognition in the face of deepening U.S. divides and filmed in rural Wisconsin, PURPLE models a rare conversation that uplifts and inspires even while going toward the heat of passionate political differences.

PURPLE equips educators and administrators with a toolkit to help students engage with and understand divergent opinions on current political and social issues on their own terms, while discussing the value of doing so for our democracy. The accompanying Discussion Guide teaches students essential civic skills and dispositions, including how to communicate constructively on contentious issues across political divides. The film and lesson plan are a great fit for civics, government, history, debate, social studies, and humanities courses, and best suited for 6th-12th grade classrooms and up.

In this webinar, Melissa Weintraub, the Founding Co-Executive Director of Resetting the Table and one of the creators of PURPLE, will present a screening of the 20-minute film followed by an experiential walk-through of an accompanying lesson plan, including teaching two key skills for productive conversations across disagreement.

This is a private screening for public officials who head departments of education in the U.S. There will be a public screening of PURPLE on 6/15, followed by communication skill-building for productive discussion of charged issues across political divides. Click here to sign up.

Resetting the Table is distributing the film and Discussion Guide as free resources to schools, educators, and other civic and community organizations. If you are interested in bringing PURPLE to your community or network, please visit us at www.resettingthetable.org/purple.