Imagining a World Without Extreme Political Polarization

1. Prepare Students for the Activity
   If you did not teach Activities 1 through 4, you can briefly share what political polarization is and its causes by reviewing excerpts from the Political Polarization in the United States explainer. 
2. Students Reflect on Political Polarization in the Present
   Begin by asking students to reflect on what political polarization looks, sounds, or feels like in their community. Encourage students to reflect on whether this has changed at all—either by increasing or decreasing—ahead of the election and why they think that is the case. You can record these ideas and observations as a concept map on the board.
3. Students Imagine the Future 
   Then ask students to imagine their community 30 or 50 years in the future at a time when extreme political polarization doesn’t exist. Students will free-write, draw, or do both without stopping for three to five minutes. Let students know that they can just write whatever comes to mind in relation to the prompts without worrying about grammar, mistakes, or editing. If a picture or visual comes to mind, they can draw instead of or in addition to writing. Students shouldn’t feel like they need to respond to all of the following questions, which are intended to prompt their reflection and imagination.
   • What does your community look, sound, and feel like in the future? 
   • How do people engage in discussion when they disagree with one another?
   • How do people respond when challenging societal issues come up that need to be solved?
   • What does your community look, sound, and feel like during an election when people are voting for their representatives?
4. Reflect Through Discussion

Next, ask students to pair up and share what it was like to imagine that future, basing their discussion on the following questions:

• What felt easy and/or hard to imagine about the future? Why do you think that was the case?
• How did that imagined future help you think about what might be possible in our world today?
• Did this affect the way you think about the upcoming election? If so, how?

Ask students to share highlights from their conversations with the larger group. Draw on students’ ideas and synthesize connections between what students imagined and what might be possible in our world today.