
Students and teachers discuss the transition of presidential power at Yarmouth High School on Jan. 31. Sophie Burchell / The Forecaster
On Jan. 31, nearly 40 high school students from five schools in Midcoast Maine sat down in Yarmouth High School and accomplished what many adults in our polarized times cannot: They held thoughtful conversations about political differences.
“I think a lot of the students are very politically engaged, and I think they’re concerned about what is going on in the world around them, and they want to try and find ways in whatever it means for them to do something about that,” said Nathan Madeira, a math teacher at Yarmouth High School.
The Yarmouth High School’s new “CivilTea Club” planned and hosted the event. The club was formed this fall by a group of students seeking to have these sometimes-fraught conversations both within their school and with students from other towns who may hold differing political opinions or life experiences.
“I think at our school in Yarmouth, there’s certainly a lot more socioeconomic political diversity than you might expect, but there is sort of like the broad base assumption that most folks are (of a) higher socioeconomic status and that most folks are left-leaning in town,” said Madeira, who also is an adviser for the CivilTea Club.
“They were really excited to meet folks from other places who maybe think about things a little bit differently from them,” said Madeira.
School faculty had been hearing from students that they wanted to have these conversations since around the 2016 presidential election, said Julia Enriquez, a social studies teacher at Yarmouth High School and the other adviser of the CivilTea Club.
“Everybody was very supportive of this idea, but in practice, that’s a skillset, and no one really knew necessarily what the format should look like or how to go about doing that. So it sort of remained an idea that we wanted to support, but not feeling that we (could pursue) action.”

Students from Waynflete, Monmouth Academy, Sacopee Valley High School, Windham High School and Yarmouth High School talking with each other about their values and politics. Sophie Burchell / The Forecaster
That was until this fall, the CivilTea Club arose out of the Can We? Project, an interschool initiative that was run by Portland’s Waynflete School since 2018 with the purpose of equipping students with the tools to engage in and facilitate conversations across political and other differences. All the students at the CivilTea Club’s interschool discussion participated in the Can We? Project events previously.
A group of Yarmouth High School students founded the CivilTea Club after wanting to bring the discussions that arose through the Can We? Project into their school’s classrooms and hallways. In the fall, they facilitated discussions for Yarmouth students and educators about the election and the school’s new cellphone policy.
“We like to think of Can We? as a catalyst,” said John Holdridge, director of Waynflete’s Third Thought Initiatives for Civic Engagement under which the Can We? Project falls.
“It’s really exciting to think that whatever influence we’ve had on these teachers and these students, that this is what they wanted to do. They wanted to provide this opportunity for their own student body and also obviously students from other Can We? Projects,” he said.
At the event on Friday morning, students from Waynflete, Monmouth Academy, Sacopee Valley High School, Windham High School and Yarmouth High School gathered at tables and answered questions about their values, the values they sought in political candidates, and who is responsible for a peaceful transition of power. The CivilTea Club prepared questions, definitions, tea and cookies, and pipe cleaners for everyone to fidget with while they talked and listened. Each conversation table had between seven and 10 students from various schools and a Yarmouth High School student facilitating.
Graham Baybutt is a Yarmouth High School senior and CivilTea Club leader. He first joined a Can We? Project event after taking a global issues class and enjoying the discussion of politics through Socratic seminars.
At the CivilTea Club event, his table focused on immigration in their discussion. Baybutt said that the conversation ranged from immigrants supporting the workforce and uplifting community to the discussion of whether immigration should only be allowed to remain in the United States if immigrants arrived here through legal avenues.
“We had some actually differing opinion, which was kind of fun, especially (about) how the immigration is going now,” said Baybutt.
“It was kind of cool to hear those two arguments and get those opinions. Yeah, it was just a fun environment. And there was no maliciousness, or any sort of attacking going on. It was truly, ‘Here are our opinions and here’s what we believe in,’” he said.

CivilTea Club leaders present discussion questions. Sophie Burchell / The Forecaster
Another table discussed the influence of social media on politics and responsibility of the government for a transition of power to remain peaceful. Liam Hackett, Yarmouth High School senior and CivilTea Club leader, said that the conversation brought everyone closer.
“I’m not a big political guy. I’m a big discussion guy. I’m majoring in international affairs and I’m gonna be arguing and talking a lot, and I realized that within Yarmouth there’s not really a place to have those type of outlets,” said Hackett.
“It created a real sense of community within the table for us to be able to discuss these things that I wouldn’t just go talking around with people if I’m going on the street,” he said.
The challenge of having a potentially uncomfortable or difficult conversation opened students up to connection. Enriquez said through CivilTea Club and the Can We? Project, she has seen students entering dialogue with openness and the desire to connect.
“I think we’ve identified kind of as a society that socialization is really challenging for our young people, and putting themselves out there and speaking with confidence, because so many of their interactions are mediated by social media. It’s tough for them to just settle in and talk to one another,” said Enriquez.
The opportunity to sit together in this way is meaningful and has greater social benefits, she said.
“What’s been very powerful is that it’s been working. Our initial group was a very diverse group of kids who come from different backgrounds, have different interests, and yet each of them has gotten so good at welcoming others and making other people feel comfortable, and making them part of the conversation,” she said.
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