We launched Or Initiative!
February 11, 2026
Thank you to the more than 200 educators, school leaders, curriculum designers, technologists, students, and community members who joined in-person at Chapman University.
If you are among the leaders who joined us, we hope you will enjoy this recap and forward it to an interested friend.
If you were not able to be with us, below are some highlights.
Our Report
Read our report, Coming of Age in Polarized Times: Teaching Civil Discourse in a Digital Era, which draws on a year of interviews with middle and high school students and educators and a review of curricular tools that teachers can reach for.
Videos
Listen to students and educators we interviewed to learn more about our key findings.
Information Asymmetry
Students discuss how knowing and caring more about an issue can have the unexpected effect of disadvantaging them in discussions with peers who are “TikTok educated” on the topic.
Majority Rules
Traditional media literacy skills don’t map onto algorithmic and AI-driven digital environments—so teens describe what they do when those skills fail them.
Making Meaning
Social media also offers teens opportunities: to deepen connections to community, reflect on personal connections to conflicts and current events—and, when they fact-check claims in their feeds, to foster understanding instead of division.
What Teachers Told Us
Educators and school leaders share how students’ digital lives and social media use are influencing how they learn, form opinions, and engage in classroom discussions.
Our Terrific Speakers
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- Louise Dubé (iCivics), Yvette Renteria (Common Sense Media), & Joel Breakstone (Digital Inquiry Group), moderated by Anya Kamenetz, debating what it will take to build teens’ civil and civic muscle in the digital age.
- Candice Odgers (UC-Irvine) & Michael H. Levine (Or Initiative) on what the evidence shows—and doesn’t—about social media’s effects on teens.
- Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (USC) & Charissa Cheah (U Maryland) on the brain science of teen development in a digital age
- Simon Cullen (Sway) & Adnan Jaber (Tech2Peace) on what digital tools can do to help teach civil discourse
- Natalia Mehlman Petrzela (The New School) and Vikki Katz (Or Initiative & Chapman U) on new pathways to cultivating civil discourse on tough topics
Watch Them In Action
Building Teens’ Civil & Civic Muscle with Louise Dubé, Yvette Renteria, Joel Breakstone
Social Media’s Effects On Teens with Candice Odgers & Michael H. Levine - Or Initiative
Brain Science of Teen Development with Mary Helen Immordino-Yang & Charissa Cheah
What Digital Tools Can Do To Help Teach Civil Discourse with Simon Cullen & Adnan Jaber
Cultivating Civil Discourse On Tough Topics - Natalia Mehlman Petrzela & Vikki Katz - Or Initiative
Read Our OC Register Editorial
Teens are learning about conflict everywhere— except where it matters most.
Check out some of our favorite candid snaps!
Feburary 9th, 2026
Feburary 10th, 2026
The energy in the room made it clear—there is a growing community ready to embrace new approaches. Or Initiative exists to connect that community across school levels and sectors to help young people build capabilities to be digitally discerning, build shared knowledge on pressing issues, and stay in relationship with each other, even in disagreement.
If you haven’t already, join our mailing list. Or Initiative’s next phase: school pilots, curriculum partnerships, and civil discourse innovation, is getting started. We hope you’ll be part of it.
Let’s get to work!
Vikki Katz & the Or Initiative team
Or Initiative gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Samueli Foundation, Arthur M. Blank Foundation, Einhorn Collaborative, Diane & Guilford Glazer Foundation, and The Covenant Foundation.