With politics polarised and online aggression crushing debate, demand is surging for schemes that teach empathetic engagement
Sep 23, 2024
As the leaders from around the world gather in New York this week to speak at the annual UN General Assembly, Jasmine Yazid is gearing up to host her own version in Washington early next year.
She is secretary-general of the North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN), created at Georgetown University in 1963, less than 20 years after the UN itself was founded.
Her team is bracing itself for a record 3,300 high school students role-playing the negotiations between governments on contested international issues. “You learn to completely remove yourself and understand someone else’s perspective,” she says. “A lot of the countries the students represent as delegates are ones they have never been to, heard of or agree with. Yet they are able to represent these views wherever they are coming from.”
Model UN is one of an expanding set of programmes attracting growing participation in the US and beyond, as educators looks for ways to engage students with current affairs. It also involves learning to be civil even when views strongly diverge. At a time of rising polarisation, “no platforming” and a preference for slogans over interacting directly and empathetically with people who hold different opinions, the programme offers scope to ease tensions intensified by the explosion in social media use and young people’s isolation during Covid.