How to Disagree Without Dehumanising | Sharon Booth, Solutions Not Sides

"Education shouldn't be about telling young people what to think. It should be telling them how they can think." — Sharon Booth

How do you hold an honest conversation about one of the world's most divisive conflicts, in a school classroom, without it descending into a shouting match? This episode looks at peace education: the skills, the psychology and the facilitation that let people disagree deeply while still recognising each other's humanity.

Our guest is Sharon Booth, founder and executive director of Solutions Not Sides (SNS), an educational charity that brings young Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilders into UK schools to share their stories and equip students to think for themselves. Sharon moderated the acclaimed "No Hope But Peace" dialogue at the Festival of Humanism in Bournemouth.

In this conversation we cover:

The SNS "PEACE" model and the three E's (exploration, empathy, empowerment), and why dialogue alone can do harm if it doesn't lead to change

How social media and the "age of outrage" made people less willing to participate, and what Haidt's elephant and rider teaches us about why

Creating "safe and brave" spaces, defusing in-group / out-group thinking, and the role Sharon believes humanists should play in peacebuilding

Links:

Solutions Not Sides: https://www.solutionsnotsides.co.uk

No Hope But Peace (our earlier episode with Yaniv Aknin and Jasr Kawkby): https://humanismnow.buzzsprout.com

Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: https://righteousmind.com

Chapters: