Middie Rising - A City Unites and Defuses a School Culture War (Ep. 2 of 3)

Courageous Conversations About Our Schools

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In this second of three episodes about a culture war simmering in Middletown, Ohio, we learn how Superintendent Styles responds to allegations of racism and violations of students’ rights because of health mandates.

Hint: He didn’t fight back. Instead, he listened to his critics. He then asked for help from the community’s “quiet majority,” a group he called “the Positive Gossipers,” and members of the Middletown Area Ministerial Alliance These counterintuitive steps helped to defuse the conflict and ultimately enabled the district to focus on serious challenges affecting student learning. The current administration, the Board recently launched “Middie Minutes Matter,” an initiative designed to reduce the high levels of chronic student absenteeism in the district. And they are receiving assistance from the same group of community leaders that supported the district was faced with a polarizing conflict.

Tune in to the third and final episode to hear from Middletown’s community leaders and several outside observers who reflect on the tangible lessons this story teaches. One of these observers is Amanda Ripley, author of the New York Times bestselling book, High Conflict - Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, who said, “I love the story because we desperately need examples of how people and communities manage to get out of dysfunctional conflict.”