Monica Guzmán Addresses Academy on Polarization

By TEDDY CAPOZZI, AMY LIN, CHLOE LIND, CIARA O’NEILL and GRACIELLA POLOMAR 

On Tuesday, Sept. 26, students gathered in Assembly Hall to welcome guest speaker Monica Guzmán. In her speech, she encouraged students to build bridges and embrace polarizing conversations. The much-anticipated assembly was an opportunity for students to reflect on how they present their political beliefs at a community level.

Guzmán is a self-proclaimed bridge builder, award-winning author, Mexican-American immigrant, and liberal journalist who encourages people to be receptive listeners. As the daughter of Republican Mexican immigrants, Guzmán recalls her home was never without argument. Over time, she learned to listen more intently to those of opposing political stances, like her parents. When Guzmán’s parents voted for Trump in 2020, she was fearful a political schism would take place within her family. In navigating this familial hurdle, Guzmán said she learned the importance of intellectual humility and giving people the benefit of the doubt. “People can only hear when they’re heard,” she said. 

During assembly, Guzmán shared her thoughts on how healthy debate can thrive on campus. She felt debates should cover divisive topics, but everyone should be participating in a “collective search for truth.”

  “[The] central idea of Monica Guzmán’s talk was [about] being curious about others’ perspectives and question[ing] certainty,”   Upper Catherine Yan said when reflecting on the assembly. Guzmán emphasized how curiosity and friction are necessary for debate, but felt that the two sides should be collaborating, not arguing. 

Republican Club co-head and senior Carter Otis found Guzmán and her parents’ strong relationship albeit their contrasting views noteworthy. “I think it’s really important to be able to maintain a healthy relationship with people [you] disagree [with]. I have a lot of people who come to my club regularly that I really disagree with. I don’t think they’re correct, but I do listen to them and I also learn from them. You’re never always right.”

Some students found Guzmán’s speech to be relevant to Academy life, particularly the Harkness method. “We can make the Harkness table less daunting by ensuring that students feel safe being vocal about their opinions,” prep Ava Salvator said. “There should be no imbalance of power at the round table.” 

Senior Leo Braham, another Republican Club co-head, shared a different perspective. Braham sided with Guzmán on bridge building and appreciated the school for bringing her in to speak. However, he believed that her message was, “Too little, too late.” Braham stated that while he feels comfortable sharing his political beliefs with others at the academy, he knows many other students are afraid to state their opinions, specifically at the Harkness table. He felt that this was completely contradictory to what Harkness is supposed to be about, and pushed for mutual respect of opposing political views at the Harkness table. However, he emphasized his appreciation towards the academy for their reflection on the political divide, and how they are working to create a space for everyone to share their opinions, as shown by the Guzmán assembly.

  “A lot of my political beliefs align with my [views] on human rights, so, sometimes discussing them with people who have opposing political beliefs can put me in unsafe and compromising situations,” Salvator said. As a community, Salvator believes the school needs to better cater to the needs of Exeter’s diverse student body. While many students feel safe sharing their political alliances, Salvator remarked that marginalized students on campus sometimes do not feel comfortable sharing their views.

Democratic Club co-head Aliyana Koch-Manzur believes the school could be a safer place for healthy discourse if community members learn to consider opposing viewpoints, regardless if they are outside of their own political spectrum. “From the view that Exeter’s coming from, we tend to look at everything with a very liberal point of view without really considering that half of this country is conservative. We also look at it from a bit of a place of privilege. So I thought what she was trying to emphasize, asking questions and not coming into political discussions without any preconceived notion, was a good thing to emphasize on this campus,”

Otis emphasized the importance of diversity of thought mentioned in the assembly. “One element of her talk that I really liked was [that] just because someone disagrees with you, it doesn’t mean they hate everything. It just means that they have a different order of priorities. For immigration for example, maybe they prioritize their security over humanity or economic policy. It’s important to [note] they’re not an evil person. They just have a different set of priorities.”

Instructor in American history Bill Jordan has followed Guzman’s work for several years and has done his part to include such models in his curriculum. “I’ve been following her Braver Angels group since I read about it in 2017 and have been promoting similar ideas in my courses for decades—especially in my Politics and Public Policy course,” Jordan wrote.  “Molding our students into good democratic citizens ought to be an even higher priority for Exeter—and any American high school—than getting our students into the best possible college.”

Along with learning about government, Jordan said, “Citizenship education should involve teaching students to practice epistemic humility, open-mindedness and how to live and compromise with adversaries rather than go to war with them.”

Students hold out hopes for future assemblies similar to this one. “I think it’s interesting that the school seems to [have focused] on bipartisanship for two assemblies in a row. I think it is a bit of an issue on our campus and in the country as a whole. So, I like that we’re doing this, even if some of the execution could have been done a bit better,” Koch-Manzur said. 

“I hope talks like this and bringing in conservatives like Governor Sununu (a past assembly guest) helps people change—not necessarily [to] become more affiliated with one party or the other, but [to] just get used to hearing different views,” Otis said. “I do appreciate that the school is saying we need to have more people with different views [at assemblies], but I also do want to make sure the school follows through on that.”