Discussion is key to humanity.
We’re in the middle of a Conversation Crisis.
The good news? Discussion skills are perfectly teachable.
We equip K-12 schools to teach them.
Our shared future depends on teaching young people how to talk—and really listen—to each other.
Today’s students are growing up in a world that doesn’t often include real, live conversations. Kids text instead of talk, ask bots instead of friends, swipe away what they don’t like, use self-checkouts to avoid cashiers, or tune out the world with enormous, humanity-canceling headphones.
Yet, human skills matter more than ever.
At R.E.A.L.® Discussion, our services equip K-12 schools to teach and assess the discussion skills Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha students need, through Professional Learning and Custom Program Design. No matter which path your school chooses, you can expect that our solutions are informed by research, built by teachers, tested in real schools, and fundamentally optimistic.
Partner with us to launch a Conversation Comeback on your campus today!
Bring R.E.A.L.® Discussion to Your School
R.E.A.L.® Discussion is one of the most compelling and actionable ways any school can train our youth to communicate effectively – and respectfully – across differences.
“R.E.A.L.® Discussion is the perfect strategy for actually teaching and assessing the communication skills strand of our Portrait of a Learner. It brings ideals like empathetic listener, courageous communicator, and critical thinker into clear focus for our teachers and students. And the discussions themselves are amazing: equitable, rigorous, and truly-student led!
Conversation Skills Are Key to Success – in School and in Life.
Yet, for children growing up in our tech-centric world, live conversation has become hard and even scary. Today’s students struggle with the basics: expressing themselves, engaging different viewpoints, listening deeply, reading non-verbal cues. These are skills for learning across disciplines — and real life.
This is not “just a pandemic problem” … the decline in in-person social skills is a trend researchers have documented for a decade: a predictable opportunity cost of more time spent on screens. It’s not about to get better.
For teachers facing a tech-centric world, in-class learning – which relies on conversation – is becoming even more important. In an AI era, teachers need new tools for explicitly teaching the deeply human skills that robots can’t replace. At the top of the list? The oral and social skills that students learn through discussion.
The good news? These skills are age-old (thanks @Socrates), future-proof (hey AI) — and absolutely teachable. But they must be explicitly taught in schools.
R.E.A.L.® is the first research-backed approach for teaching and assessing oracy and discussion skills. Originally designed by Harvard graduates to serve world-leading US private schools, R.E.A.L.® now integrates with all major curricula.
We are proud to partner with schools around the world, providing educators with training and tools to become the oracy and discussion skills experts our students need.