School leaders and teachers see the Conversation Crisis every day. Students arrive academically capable, but when it is time to engage in real discussion, something happens. Participation feels risky. Silence feels safer. Community breaks down. It is the predictable result of a screen-saturated, polarized, AI-shaped world.

Enter Conversation Comeback.: A Teacher’s Guide to Class Discussion in a Distracted, Divided World — a new book by R.E.A.L.® Discussion founder and CEO Liza Garonzik

Grounded in more than a decade of work with schools across the country, the book equips educators with a research-informed, practice-proven framework for teaching the foundationally human skills like discussion intentionally.

We’re encouraged and honored by the response from early readers, whose words whose words affirm both the urgency of this moment and the practicality of the approach.

“A ‘what do we do about this challenge’ solution-oriented book for the present moment.” — Michael Horn

“A coherent, actionable system for building essential human skills.” —Jeff Wetzler

“A guidebook that belongs in every teacher’s toolkit.” — Grant Lichtman

“A timely, practical blueprint for strengthening how students learn, lead, and connect.” — Megan D. Cover

“A plan for teaching the most foundational, human, necessary, and AI-proof skills.” — Claire Goldsmith

“The antidote we need.” — Danielle Heard

“A balm for our digitally intermediated times.” — Peter Nilsson 

“A teachable framework for building discussion skills that strengthen uniquely human capacities.” — Margarita O’Byrne Curtis

“A refreshing reminder of what it means to be human and authentic.” — Bradford Gioia

“An energetic, practical, can-do guide.” —Bart Griffith

Why This Book Matters

The Conversation Crisis is real. In a screen-saturated world, students rarely get authentic opportunities to practice live, human-to-human conversation. They can text instead of talk. Ask a bot instead of a friend. Post into an algorithm-fueled echo chamber. Tune out with headphones.

Meanwhile, in classrooms, we ask them to engage in meaningful discussion.

Class discussion is bigger than academics. It is one of the few spaces where students can build essential human skills — listening, empathy, curiosity, and critical thinking — that matter for learning, life, and society.

As AI reshapes what students can produce, teachers must double down on what students can practice.

What Conversation Comeback Offers

For more than a decade, R.E.A.L.® Discussion has worked with over 100 schools to build a research-informed, practice-proven approach to teaching and assessing discussion skills. In Conversation Comeback, that approach is made accessible to any educator ready to begin.

R.E.A.L.® breaks discussion into four skills — Relate, Excerpt, Ask, and Listen — turning discussion into a teachable, learnable, and measurable practice.

With clear strategies and frameworks, this book equips educators to foster authentic conversation, deeper learning, and stronger classroom communities in a tech-driven and AI-forward world.” Debra Wilson, NAIS President

Teaching discussion is not just a pedagogical choice. It is a strategic one. This is not just about better discussion. Each class discussion is a step closer to a future rich with real, human connection.

Beyond the school day, our shared future depends on teaching today’s students the discussion skills they need to transcend the Conversation Crisis.

That said, Conversation Comeback is not an endpoint. It is the beginning of a broader movement to restore discussion as a core academic practice and a cornerstone of human connection in schools.

Start here. And let’s keep the conversation going.

If You’re Already Part of the REAL Community

So many of you are already partners or long-time champions of this work. This book is as much yours as it is ours!

Here are meaningful ways you can support Conversation Comeback:

• Leave an honest review on Amazon , Blue Hat, or GoodReads. Verified reviews make an enormous difference in helping new educators discover the book.
• Share the link with a colleague, department chair, or head of school.
• Make Conversation Comeback your summer read. More info coming soon on our new edition, written especially for a broader faculty and community-wide audience.
• Post a reflection or connection to REAL in your school on LinkedIn and tag R.E.A.L.® Discussion.

Here’s the CONVERSATION COMEBACK ahead!

On The Purpose and Practice of K-12 Humanities Teaching in Today’s World, Co-written by Humanities Educators | 2026

Schools are moving quickly to adopt AI. New policies are being drafted. New tools are being piloted. Professional development is focused on integration and regulation. All of this work matters. But as the AI conversation accelerates, something is missing.

Humanities teachers have had little time to step back and interrogate the larger issues about pedagogy, childhood, and humanity in an AI world. What is the enduring purpose of reading, writing, and discussion? What must remain deeply human? What shifts in classroom practice, not just policy, are required and why?

R.E.A.L.® Discussion created space for that conversation, convening a collaborative of K–12 humanities educators and academic leaders to engage these foundational questions together. Over two months, participants read, wrote, reflected, and discussed what it means to teach the humanities at this pivotal moment.

The result is Humanities and Humanity in an AI World: An Educator’s Manifesto — a co-constructed declaration about reading, writing, discussion, and the lived experience of being a humanities teacher today.

“We cannot let the AI conversation stay only at the level of tools,” said Liza Garonzik, Founder of R.E.A.L.® Discussion. “The real question is not simply what AI can do, but what only humans can do. We are already living through a conversation crisis. Students are more screen-bound and less practiced in live dialogue. This manifesto reflects the shared belief that educators have the expertise and daily influence to cultivate uniquely human capacities. If we intentionally teach students to read deeply, write clearly, and engage in real discussion, we are not pushing back against the future; we are guiding it. This is our opportunity to lead a true Conversation Comeback.”

We offer this manifesto as an invitation. If your school is ready to move beyond tactical AI conversations and into foundational ones, we encourage you to read the document, share it with your team, and use the reflection questions on the final page to begin your own discussion.

At R.E.A.L.® Discussion, we help schools translate conversations like these into coherent, skills-based practice. If you are ready to build a deliberate approach to reading, writing, and discussion in an AI-shaped world, we would welcome the opportunity to partner with you. Find a time to chat here.

We hope you’ll join us on LinkedIn for the conversation about the Manifesto.

It’s been fun to see other founders share the “unhinged” things they have done to build their businesses. Many have resonated deeply: late nights, early mornings, competing priorities, sales-fails…

But to me, this trend is more than entertainment. It’s an example of authentic interaction in a world that is increasingly AI-dominated, and I’m a relentless champion for human connection.

So, what are some of the “unhinged” things I have done to build R.E.A.L.® Discussion?

1. I booked a terrifying number of speaking gigs, with essentially no speaking experience. One June, I ran 120 hours of PD, having facilitated half that number of hours total in my whole life to that point. And one October, I spoke at nine conferences, with exactly one presentation under my belt before that. Was it exhausting? You bet! Terrifying? Totally. But, I saw these opportunities as boot camp: time for me to build skills I needed and didn’t yet have, fast. Brain science says spaced repetition is the key to deep learning. After this experience, I believed it. I learned a lot in those early days—not only that I needed to develop a great program, but also that I needed to train great teammates to facilitate it.
2. I (over)relied on interns. Speaking of the team, my approach to talent management has probably been the most “unhinged” of it all. I began with interns, and will always have them. To this day, it fills my educator-heart to keep working with young people and giving them real responsibilities to develop professional skills: providing live client service, producing curriculum used by real classrooms, managing social media seen by thousands, and the list goes on. Those intern-only years launched the mantra that still guides our company today: If we’re learning, we’re winning.
3. I purposefully stayed the only FTE. Even when I could have afforded staff beyond interns, I chose to work with almost 90 contractors to build this thing. I have found that fractional experts offer high-quality, targeted work, and that approach has challenged me to get crystal-clear on each project I scope and direct resources and energy to. Plus, the constant turnover forced me to codify how we onboard and operate. This organizational maturity never would have happened if we had built with a few generalist FTEs passing Google Docs back and forth.
4. I filmed courses from my online-course-studio-laundry-room. After reading many blogs about how to set up the perfect online course studio, I decided I didn’t need a perfectly positioned fiddleleaf fig to get my message across. I built a standing desk out of diaper boxes on top of my dryer. I positioned my microphone as far away as possible from the chicken coop. And yes: the rooster makes his way into the audio tracks here and here. Hopefully, people find it charming. While an upgrade would be nice, thousands of educators have learned effectively from that setup.
5. For six years, I woke up at 4:30 am to do R.E.A.L.® work before going to my full-time job. I worked in schools during the day, then worked on R.E.A.L.® from 4:30–6:30 am. (You read that part about the rooster, right?). I saw the two jobs as complementary: my experience as a real teacher and administrator allowed me to design programs that would actually work on the ground level, and my bigger picture mission helped me keep the daily drama of school life in perspective. And yes: summers mostly meant even more time for R.E.A.L. ®, often spent on free passes at different WeWorks or leading workshops anywhere a school would hire me. As any founder knows, the time is there; you just have to find it.
6. Okay, I admit it. I even bought fake eyeglasses. Why? Because I’m not old enough to need “readers, “ but every great school administrator I know seems to wear glasses at least some of the time. It wasn’t just that. I actually got feedback that I needed to look older to be taken seriously! As the saying goes: to sell Jones what Jones buys, see the world through Jones’ eyes. (Don’t worry; I drew the line at the beaded lanyard).

Were these moves unconventional? Maybe. Unhinged? Probably. Worth it? Absolutely.

Those early days planted the seeds for a thriving company that has now served thousands of educators and tens of thousands of students across the country and around the world.

In fact, educators know what it means to hustle for something you believe in. At R.E.A.L.®, that means teaching real-world discussion skills in school, so students can build human connection even as they grow up in a tech-centric world.

What are the “unhinged” moves you have made to make your dream a reality? Drop a comment here or over on the R.E.A.L.® Discussion page, where we love discussing discussion. Of course, I always welcome a conversation.

What happens when we teach young people to truly listen, speak with courage, and connect face-to-face?

In Episode 8 of Millions of Conversations, hosted by Samar S. Ali and produced by NewsChannel 5 Network, Liza Garonzik joins the show to explore that big, deceptively simple question.

At a time when disconnection is everywhere—amplified by disconnection, polarization, and increased pressure on young people—Liza shares how R.E.A.L. Discussion® equips students and teachers with tools to reclaim conversation as a powerful, academic, and decidedly human practice.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• Why face-to-face conversation is more than a soft skill; it’s a survival skill
• How R.E.A.L. turns listening and speaking into teachable, assessable practices
• What changes when students lead their own classroom discussions
• How communication tools ripple outward to kitchen tables, checkout lines, and future workplaces
• A hopeful, practical vision for education in a polarized, tech-saturated world

Why It Matters

We live in a moment defined by noise and an aching need for connection. And that need shows up everywhere: in classrooms, homes, neighborhoods, and institutions. This episode reminds us that the skills we need to rebuild trust and relationships aren’t automatic; they can be taught—and they often start with a single conversation.

If we want our kids to connect with others and lead with integrity, we have to teach them how. Face-to-face. In real time.”

Liza Garonzik, R.E.A.L. Discussion® Founder & CEO

Listen Now

Listen to the full conversation now on the Millions of Conversations podcast.

Prefer to watch?
Let’s Have a R.E.A.L. Discussion® with Liza Garonzik – Episode 8

Explore More

• Check out what teachers are saying about R.E.A.L.® in their classrooms
• Learn more about R.E.A.L. Discussion® and our approach
• Read about what we’re calling “The Other AI”
• Join our Community on LinkedIn where we love to discuss discussion

Hosted by Simon Noakes (Founder & CEO of Interactive Schools), the Inspiring Schools Podcast welcomes some of the world’s most influential educators to explore the future of education, leadership, innovation, AI in schools, evolving school structures, and more. Each episode offers fresh insight into the ideas shaping the education landscape.

In this episode, R.E.A.L. Discussion® founder & CEO Liza Garonzik joins Simon for a timely conversation about why teaching real-world communication skills is more urgent than ever—and how schools can do it with clarity, rigor, and purpose.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• Why speaking and listening are academic skills, not just social ones
• How R.E.A.L. Discussion® helps students lead class discussions with structure and confidence
• What schools can do now to prepare students for the human future

Why It Matters

The skills students need most—empathy, clarity, confidence, nuance—come from real conversation. And those skills can’t just be hoped for. They must be taught, practiced, and measured.

At R.E.A.L. Discussion®, we help schools do just that by embedding human connection into academic life and giving teachers and students the tools to make it stick.

Listen to the Full Episode Now

Let’s Keep Talking

• Learn More About R.E.A.L. Discussion®
• Hop on Liza’s calendar for a 1:1
• Visit our LinkedIn page to continue the conversation

This Spring, we decided it was time to think strategically about how we were showing up in the world and ensure that our visuals matched our values! As we have learned, a great brand is a welcome mat, an invitation, a gesture of hospitality. It’s like the opening line in a discussion – done well, it puts others at ease and establishes immediate connection. 

The brand refresh was scaffolded by a thoughtful, multi-step process – research, focus groups, design, revision, operationalization – and centered around a key question: how can our refreshed visual brand reflect the past, present, and future of R.E.A.L.® Discussion? It involved voices from many corners of the R.E.A.L.® universe, so thank you to all who offered insight! 

Today, we are proud to introduce our updated visual brand, created for us by Molly Morris Design. Molly is a longtime friend of and collaborator at R.E.A.L.® Discussion – she is the designer behind our student and teacher materials, so she already knew us literally inside-out as the start of the project!  This context and trust proved to be the foundation for a winning design process, and hopefully, the creation of a brand that feels “fresh” – but still “familiar.”

Molly reflects that: “As a program and concept, R.E.A.L. Discussion just has vitality—it’s an invitation to something important, deeply human, and fun. As I set out to refresh the brand, my job was to ensure the visual components of the brand matched the organization’s spirit. This meant changes like: 

• Livening up the color palette with some punchier blues and oranges instead of just navy, red, and white: this introduced more nuance and a brighter vibe overall;
• Creating a logo mark that literally represents the process of discussion and learning: the new logo represents the endless dynamism of the brain and the back-and-forth of conversation;
• Selecting a new font family that feels simultaneously academic, alive, easy-to-read – and appealing for people of all ages: 

True to its name, the R.E.A.L.® Discussion team loves having deep discussions, so this whole project was an example of joyful collaboration, too! I wholeheartedly believe in R.E.A.L.’s mission and am honored to continue to further it through high-quality design.”

Catherine: What has been your path through schools? How did you end up where you are now?

Gwyneth: I grew up about two and a half miles from the Peddie School. That’s where I went to high school, and where I was in my yearbook voted “Most Likely to Return to Peddie as a Teacher.” All throughout college, though, I didn’t think I would become a teacher – I thought I would go to law school and do policy work. After I graduated, I was applying for legal research jobs. It wasn’t until I was offered one that I thought, “If I take this job, I won’t ever get to teach.” 

So I became a teacher, and I spent the first seven years of my career at Millbrook. I took a leave to go to the private school leadership program at the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, and that was transformative. 

While I was teaching, one day my History department head told me I needed to teach philosophy. I had never taken philosophy, and my department head said, “I know the content scares you. That’s why I want you to do it.” That was the year I really learned how curriculum works – and how important it is to maintain your own learner’s mindset as an adult.

Catherine: You then transitioned into administrative roles, right? What was that transition like, as you went from primarily working with students to then working with faculty? 

Gwyneth: Yes, I became the 33-year-old Dean of Faculty at Berkshire School, which felt like a dream come true. People often asked me the biggest difference between being a Dean of Students and a Dean of Faculty. And I would tell them: when a kid is on fire, you have to put it out right away. When an adult is on fire, they make an appointment. 

I spent time as an academic and faculty leader at a few different boarding schools before coming here to Pomfret School as the Director of the Grauer Institute: the learning experience we create for adults at Pomfret on behalf of kids. 

Catherine: In your role as Director of the Grauer Institute, what education trends are you most excited about right now? 

Gwyneth: The thing I’m most invested in here is the shift to competency-based learning and teaching. It’s the radical idea that we should tell students what it is we’re trying to get them to be able to do – it’s sort of bonkers that that’s even considered innovation! 

Differentiation goes hand-in-hand with competency-based learning. We’re trying to figure out how to push the high-performers harder while also supporting the kids who are struggling. 

To make this shift, I first need to get our whole faculty on board, and that’s hard too – because independent school teachers are very focused on teacher autonomy. I think in general, teacher autonomy tends to help teachers, not kids. 

Catherine: Building upon that – what excited you about R.E.A.L. ®? Can you tell us about the partnership with Grauer? 

Gwyneth: R.E.A.L.® is such a great example of the possibility to teach things we thought couldn’t be explicitly taught. That, of course, is the power of Competency-Based Learning, broadly, but R.E.A.L.® tackles an element of pedagogy that has felt especially squishy  for many teachers for a long time. We have seen that impact first-hand in our 9th and 10th grade humanities courses. 

I love how R.E.A.L.® makes discussion skills  actionable to every kid – and calls teachers to be explicit in their expectations and specific in their feedback. It’s a living embodiment of a growth mindset – both for the kids and for the faculty. 

And in many classrooms,there’s an idea that if discussion is hard for you, we should not make you do it. What?! If calculus is hard for you, we don’t say, “well, that means you can’t do it.” No – we say, “step it up and learn to do a new thing.” Oh, you prefer to express your feelings in writing? Sorry – we’re not doing that today. Maybe next week. 

Catherine: Absolutely! Can you tell me a bit about your vision for R.E.A.L. ® at Grauer this summer? 

Gwyneth: One of the things that is so apparent to anyone who does work with R.E.A.L.® is how much you all treasure your teacher-community – which I know you often call a “nerd party!” At Grauer this summer, we’re tripling down on this teacher nerd summer camp vibe. I think that’s the thing that makes R.E.A.L.® and Grauer such a good fit for one another: R.E.A.L. ® is all about human connection and all about relationships … but it needed a host site to make an in-person opportunity actually possible! 

Catherine: We’re really excited that we’ll get to be in person discussing discussion. 

What do you feel makes Grauer Institute PD different from just a regular conference workshop someone might go to?

Gwyneth: I think, besides the community aspect, we’re able to help from a tactical perspective. We don’t just give the content then send you home to apply it – we make space for you to actually take the learning and turn it into something that will be useful for you. 

Catherine: Thinking about R.E.A.L.® and Grauer – who do you think should come to the R.E.A.L.® part of the Institute this summer? 

Gwyneth: There are three tracks of the R.E.A.L. ® at Grauer Institute, each designed for a slightly different profile. 

For new-to-R.E.A.L.® teachers, Level One offers certification and pilot materials. Even if a school has no intention of implementing a full R.E.A.L ® deployment, I think any rookie humanities teachers would really benefit from R.E.A.L.® Level One. I know a teacher at Blair, where I used to work, would always say “R.E.A.L. ® should be mandatory training for any first-year humanities teacher. It helps with classroom management, organization, equity, student voice, etc.” 

For Level Two, anyone who’s already doing R.E.A.L.® Discussion but wants to dive deeper into their discussion practice and engage with practitioners who teach at other independent schools across the country … and who wants to really cultivate their own leadership in R.E.A.L.® … they would be a good fit to attend. 

Finally, Level Three will be a think tank of people like me who are thinking big picture. What does it mean for our school to be doing this in the broader context? It will be interesting to see how these three levels play together.

Thank you, Gwyneth, for your vision and your partnership! Interested in nerding out with us at Grauer Institute this summer? Register here. 

“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Sidra to the team,” said Liza Garonzik, Founder of R.E.A.L.® Discussion. “We are grateful for the mission-orientation, strategic mindset, academic leadership experience, and coaching expertise Sidra brings to the role. She is a dream partner  for our independent school community!”

Dr. Smith is an accomplished educator and leadership coach, with 30 years of experience fostering growth in others. She has experience in a wide range of school types across the US and internationally; she began her teaching career at an international school in West Africa, spent a year as a fellow in a New England boarding school, and has held faculty and senior administrative roles at various independent schools across the country. She joins R.E.A.L.® after serving most recently as the Director of Studies and Strategic Initiatives at Severn School. 

“I am honored to join  R.E.A.L.® and collaborate with my independent school colleagues to shape the future of learning and cultivate spaces where respectful and thoughtful dialogue thrives,” said Dr. Smith. “I look forward to championing civil discourse, supporting educators, and helping to  foster environments that empower students to become active, engaged citizens.”

To learn more about R.E.A.L.® Discussion or for a conversation about a skills-based approach to discussion instruction, please reach out – we’d love to chat!

• We published 49 posts on our blog this year, including…
• 9 expert interviews with a slate of education dynamos, including Spencer Burrows, Grant Lichtman, Dr. John Austin, Penny Austen, Emily Weinstein, Jeff Wetzler, Susanne Carpenter, Dr. Sarah Bennison, and Dr. Ruth Braunstein
• 7 teacher features, including profiles of Hannah Higgin, Patrick Farmer, Sumner McCallie, Holly Silberman, Matt Tilford & Jack Fischer, Shaila Richmond & William Barry, and Sydney Freibaum & Jennifer Cordero
• 4 ruminations from our Founder, Liza Garonzik, including perspective on how our skills-based approach to discussion mirrors athletic instruction, a discussion about technoference, an exploration of what to do when discussion across difference gets difficult, and a gratitude-filled post for the R.E.A.L.® community
• 4 posts on AI and its growing role in our schools (and why its emergence will make discussion skills even more critical)
• An announcement of the launch of R.E.A.L.® Basics, our program for young learners
• A whitepaper exploring ways to design discussions where extroverts practice learning and introverts practice talking
• Our second annual student essay content
• A deep dive into the past year of R.EA.L.® Discussion data

We are so grateful to you for making your way to our corner of the Internet, reading our thoughts, and learning along with us this year. We look forward to continuing the conversation (always!) in 2025!