The National Center for Competency-Based Learning believes that school Civics courses should be renamed Civics and Civility and that the teaching of Civics should not be done without being joined at the hip with Civility; that it is not enough to teach about the issues facing Americans but it is an imperative to also teach our students and, ultimately our citizens, to engage in difficult conversations in a manner that ensures that all parties remain at the table and with the end goal of finding creative solutions.

Keep It REAL is a simple tool designed primarily to help civics/social studies teachers EMBED civility training into their lessons on the issues that confront Americans with the goal of bringing about behavioral change in how we interact with one another when discussing challenging issues regardless of the social environment.