Center for Citizenship & Just Democracy - The Frederick Gunn School

stand up. make your voice heard.

The Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy (CJD) offers a time-tested, four-year curriculum at the core of the student experience at Gunn. This program fosters self-awareness and responsibility, with faculty who are committed to inspiring students to pursue engagement over cynicism, involvement over aloofness, and action over acquiescence. It would be simple to call this character development, and while we agree that strong character is essential, our CJD program is so much more. We work with our students to embrace reasoned dialogue and rational debate, and openness to all viewpoints. Our students learn to persuade others, remain open to changing their own minds, and, ultimately, lead.These skills inspired the founding of our school in 1850 and, without question, we believe they are even more relevant today. These are the skills that allow our graduates to become engaged citizens — ready for college and for life.

Mr. McMann

Dean of Programmatic Innovation

Maya '26

Yale University '30

Michael '26

Brown University '30

Blake '26

University of North Carolina '30

Kent Burnham

Director of Theatre Arts and CJD Faculty

9th grade: Pathways

Our citizenship curriculum begins in ninth grade with Pathways, a single-term course committed to helping first-year students adjust seamlessly to high school. In this course, the focus is self-awareness — emotional, physical, and intellectual — as students begin to understand what it takes to lead. Through Pathways, we push students to recognize what it means to make healthy choices and behave responsibly within our community while also teaching them executive functioning skills that will help them become intentional in their approach to learning. This work ensures that the foundation is in place for our four-year citizenship curriculum and — equally important — begins a conversation that encourages each student to start thinking about their Gunn journey from the moment they arrive on campus. At the end of the course, students complete a final project, a "Letter to Self," which they will read at their Four-Year Senior Dinner — a memorable tradition that brings seniors back to where they began in ninth grade.

10th Grade: Citizen Gunn

Citizen Gunn pairs an in-depth study of Frederick Gunn's life and ideals with community-building initiatives that help sophomores continue their journey toward becoming engaged citizens. Our founder was committed to teaching young people to be curious and thoughtful, to stand up for what they believe in, and to be active members of their communities. Sophomores come to understand this as they begin to formulate their own values and reflect on how they can contribute on our campus. And while we believe the ideals that inspired the founding of our school more than 175 years ago are as relevant today as they were then, we also use this course to help students learn to navigate their digital world in ways that are consistent with our commitment to being engaged and thoughtful members of any community. At the conclusion of the course, each student develops and presents a personal statement of moral principles — setting the stage for their Junior Speech the following year.

11th grade: The Declaration

A single-term course, The Declaration prepares students for their Junior Speech, beginning with a deep dive into documents and speeches that have greatly influenced our country. Through this work, students explore the ideas of liberty and equality as they pertain to active citizenship. As the course progresses, students learn the art of rhetoric and how to craft a message for an audience of any size. They refine these skills through weekly classroom debates, practicing the skills of persuasion and — equally important — listening. The course culminates in the Junior Speech, a rite of passage for every Highlander that is both daunting and memorable. Everyone does it, and all 400-plus members of our community listen and cheer. For us, this is the moment when students speak with courage and conviction about what matters to them. It takes bravery to stand on the stage. We ask our students to do it because we believe in the inherent value of doing hard things.

12th grade: Civic Changemakers

The Civic Changemakers Project gives each senior the opportunity to engage with a community in ways that allow them to act on their convictions and have a meaningful impact. Each project must be approved by the Director of the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy — a process that requires every proposal to be thoughtfully organized and aligned with the mission of the school. Successful completion of the project is a diploma requirement for all seniors. Immersion in this project allows students to practice networking, hone their project-management skills, and take civic action that reflects the values that are most important to them. Above all, the project teaches students to apply the skills they have learned here in their colleges, workplaces, and hometowns.

Civic Journalism & Media Making

Gunn@Work

Powerful Partnerships

A $100,000 matching grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation has provided for expanded levels of professional development for faculty around the topics of ethics, leadership, and civic engagement, and will continue to create opportunities for faculty to become involved in how character education happens on campus.

Meet the director

Bart McMann holds a bachelor’s degree in government and legal studies from Bowdoin College and a master’s in social sciences from Wesleyan University. In June 2019, he participated in the Summer Institute of Civic Studies at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University to learn more about the current scholarship on civic engagement. A former chair of the History Department at The Frederick Gunn School, he currently serves as Dean of Programmatic Innovation and Director of the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy. He is the Connecticut State Coordinator for Braver Angels, the nation's largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.