At dinner last night, my five-year-old daughter wanted to know about that sickness where you feel cold and don’t want to talk, and I was very glad to explain it to her. I had been talking about my latest blog post on the Avery Doninger case and the “chilling effect” the actions of the school administration was having on Avery.

She is at an age where we can have interesting discussions about ideas like “freedom of speech”. We talked about how in some countries people could get punished for saying bad things about their leaders, but that that is not supposed to happen in our country. We spoke about how sometimes leaders don’t understand that and punish people for saying things that they are allowed to say and how it can make people afraid to say things that they have every right to say.

At the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) annual meeting, David McCullough spoke about the importance of dinnertime discussion. Dr. Jack Shonkoff, Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University spoke about the importance of the early childhood years in a presentation on a A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy

The early childhood years lay the foundation for later economic productivity, responsible citizenship, and a lifetime of sound physical and mental health,”

This dinnertime discussion is part of the foundation that I hope Fiona will carry with her into her adult years as a responsible citizen.

Miranda, my fourteen-year-old daughter is off at school, so I haven’t had a good chance to speak with her about the lessons of the case, but there is a very important lesson for her as well. Miranda, like Avery, is bright, outspoken and has relished serving in student government. This summer, she attended the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) program and studied dissent. They read great works, like Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail.

One of my concerns with courses of study like this, and I do not know if the CTY program fell into this problem, is that they present these great fighters for our civil rights as larger than life heroes that we cannot aspire to be. Perhaps Emerson said it best,

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duties to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon have given; forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books.

The same applies to young women standing up for our civil rights. To use the words of a great old hymn, “for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.” One of the things that is so important about Avery’s case is that she reminds all of us that the great fighters for our civil rights, were people just like you and I. I hope the story of her battle gets told to many high school kids and encourages them to stand up as well.

This takes me back to another aspect of the NCSL annual meeting. I spoke with many people there who bewailed the lack of involvement of their constituents in civic life. Is it because civics is not taught well enough in our public schools? Are people to scared to step out into civic engagement? Do people believe they are powerless? In many ways it seems as if Avery is being punished for exactly what political leaders across our country are fighting for. She got involved. She tried to get others involved and those in power didn’t like it.

In 2003, my wife and I were very involved in Gov. Dean’s Presidential bid. For us, and I believe for many, a key message was about all of us having the power change our country for the better. When he ended his bid, he encouraged his supporters to stay involved, to get more involved, to even consider running for office. My wife heeded Gov. Dean’s words and ran for State Representative. It was a great experience for both of us and I wish more people had these sorts of experiences. Like Avery, Kim is a regular person just like you or I.

So, just as I hope Fiona learned something about “that sickness where you feel cold and don’t want to talk”, I hope we all learn a little bit more about the importance of civic engagement from Avery Doninger and that we all stand a little taller and a little firmer in defense of our rights.