The students had filtered slowly into the room that morning to participate in an exercise similar to those that McAvoy and her colleague, Diana Hess, observed taking place in high school classrooms in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Their 4-year study of 35 teachers and their 1,000-plus students was the basis for the book, 鈥淭he Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic 成人直播,鈥� which earned Hess and McAvoy the 2017 Grawemeyer Award in 成人直播.

A seemingly simple fill-in-the-blank exercise, 鈥淲hen I think about American politics I feel ________ because ________,鈥� kindled discussion among the Central High students and, under Hess and McAvoy鈥檚 guidance, grew into a lively debate that cleared the early morning brain fog and spurred the school鈥檚 library media specialist, Lynn Reynolds, to effuse, 鈥淵ou have opposing views and you didn鈥檛 get mad! You listened to the different sides 鈥� You鈥檒l be active citizens. You鈥檒l be the example.鈥�

Hope for a better tomorrow and the belief that ideas have the power to change the world prompted H. Charles Grawemeyer to establish in 1984 the awards program that bears his name. Since then, more than $14 million has been awarded to 148 winners across five fields: music composition, political science, education, religion and psychology.

The 2017 honorees 鈥� Hess, McAvoy, Andrew Norman, Dana Burde, Gary Dorrien and Marsha Linehan 鈥� recently visited the University of Louisville and to discuss their award-winning ideas. 听

Diana Hess and Paula McAvoy 鈥� 成人直播

The civil exchange of ideas and opinions that led at Central High School demonstrated to students and onlookers alike that tackling controversial subjects in the classroom need not be taboo. 鈥淥ur idea is that schools are a very good place to teach young people how to participate politically,鈥� said Hess. 听

McAvoy added that when teachers encourage conversations about difficult political issues, 鈥渋t is time well-spent in the classroom, that students really enjoy it, that it makes them more interested in politics, [and] they leave the class with a deeper knowledge of democracy 鈥︹��

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Andrew Norman 鈥� Music Composition

鈥溾�楶lay鈥� is a universe that I created. It has a bunch of rules that determine how musicians interact with each other and the different ways they can control each other,鈥� said of his award-winning, 47-minute orchestral work. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an exploration of those ideas, control and how people react to them and then, ultimately, how a group of people might actually break through a system of rules or controls and create something new.鈥�

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project performed the premiere of 鈥淧lay鈥� in 2013.听 Since then, the piece, which Norman said he鈥檚 rewritten 鈥渢hree or four times now,鈥� has received considerable attention and critical acclaim, including a Grammy Award nomination.

Norman also outlined the distinction between listening to a recording of 鈥淧lay鈥� versus experiencing the piece being performed live. 鈥淭o be there with the musicians as they鈥檙e actually making it and seeing them physically is really what this piece is about.鈥�

Local audiences will have the opportunity next April to immerse themselves in Norman鈥檚 musical universe when the Louisville Orchestra performs 鈥淧lay鈥� as part of its Festival of American Music.

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Dana Burde 鈥� Ideas Improving World Order

earned the 2017 World Order award for analyzing the relationship between education and political violence in Afghanistan, where she鈥檚 conducted research for more than a decade. Her 2014 book, 鈥淪chools for Conflict or for Peace in Afghanistan鈥� traces how foreign-backed funding for education can either undermine or support state-building and peacebuilding. 听

鈥淥ur U.S. government funded a curriculum to develop jihad literacy in the 1980s. And we did that because we thought it was critically important to undermine the Soviets who were occupying Afghanistan,鈥� said Burde. 鈥淭hese textbooks cultivated a link 鈥� a very strong link 鈥� between religion and violence.鈥�

Burde鈥檚 award-winning work also highlights positive outcomes of foreign aid and the power of good quality curricula and accessible, community-based schools. 鈥淭houghtful aid that responds to important needs and social services can be very effective and much of our aid in Afghanistan has been, I would argue.鈥�

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Gary Dorrien 鈥� Religion

Beginning in the late 1800s and continuing through the early 20th century, progressive Christian leaders in North America advocated the Church鈥檚 responsibility to deal with the earthly matters of human rights and equality. This religious social-reform movement is known as the Social Gospel and has been widely 鈥� and incompletely 鈥� documented. 听听

鈥淚 have long had this belief that the most important part of the story of the American Social Gospel and its enormous influence in American life, in politics, in society, in religion has just not been told because mostly it gets told as though it鈥檚 mostly white people and their institutions, and their ecumenical movement and their churches 鈥� that ends up dominating the narrative,鈥� said , whose 2015 book, 鈥淭he New Abolition: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel,鈥� earned him the 2017 religion award, which is presented jointly by UofL and the .

Dorrien details the history of the Black Social Gospel and how it became a critical forerunner of the civil rights movement. 鈥淭he greatest story we have in this country is the story of Martin Luther King Jr., and his formation, and his impact on society鈥︹�� he said. 鈥淚 hope it is an okay book, but I know it鈥檚 on a great subject.鈥�

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Marsha Linehan 鈥� Psychology

鈥淢y goal was to treat people who were high risk for suicide and difficult to treat,鈥� said psychology winner . 鈥淚 was looking to get people, essentially, out of hell.鈥�

Linehan鈥檚 goal was achieved through her trial-and-error development of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which research has shown to be effective for conditions previously considered untreatable, including chronic suicidality and borderline personality disorder. DBT teaches patients new behavioral skills to balance acceptance and change, and was the first psychotherapy to incorporate the practice of mindfulness 鈥� being fully aware in the present moment and developing a nonjudgmental attitude 鈥� as an essential component.

鈥淎 lot of the treatment, not all of it but a lot of it, is training people how to change their own behavior to change their own lives,鈥� said Linehan. 鈥淎nd the goal of the entire treatment is how to build a life that you experience as worth living.鈥�

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The Grawemeyer Awards have been a longstanding tradition at the University of Louisville, created to honor those who have impacted the world with just a single idea. UofL graduate, former Louisville Seminary trustee, and philanthropist Charles Grawemeyer founded the awards program in 1984 to pay tribute to the power of creative thought.

The awards draw nominations from all over the world, recognizing pioneers in five fields 鈥� Music Composition, Ideas Improving World Order, 成人直播, Religion and Psychology. Past winners have included those who have studied the promise of public education in America, developed potential treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, sought ways to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East, explored why Christianity has failed in its attempts to heal racial divides, and used native, traditional music to pay tribute to victims of Cambodian genocide.

The list includes Aaron Beck, considered to be the founder of cognitive therapy, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. This year鈥檚 honorees and their ideas loom just as large. Their stories are featured below.

Music Composition

Andrew Norman, a Los Angeles-based composer of orchestral, chamber and vocal music, wrote 鈥淧lay鈥� for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, which premiered the piece in 2013 and released a recording on its own label. In three movements, 鈥淧lay,鈥� this year鈥檚 winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, explores the relationship of choice and chance, freewill and control.

The piece investigates the ways musicians in an orchestra can play with, against, or apart from one another; and maps concepts from the world of video gaming onto traditional symphonic structures to tell a fractured narrative of power, manipulation, deceit and, ultimately, cooperation.听

鈥溾�楶lay鈥� combines brilliant orchestration, which is at once wildly inventive and idiomatic, with a terrific and convincing musical shape based on a relatively small amount of musical source material,鈥� said Award Director Marc Satterwhite. 鈥淚t ranges effortlessly from brash to intimate and holds the listener鈥檚 interest for all of its 47 minutes 鈥� no small feat in these days of shortened attention spans.鈥� 听

鈥淧lay鈥� has also been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and Norman was recently named Musical America鈥檚 2017 Composer of the Year.

Ideas Improving World Order

Dana Burde鈥檚 2014 book, 鈥淪chools for Conflict or for Peace in Afghanistan,鈥� explores the influence foreign-backed funding for education has on war-torn countries and how such aid affects humanitarian and peace-building efforts. Because of her analysis on this topic, Burde, an associate professor of international education at NYU, is this year鈥檚 winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

鈥淚 argue that instead of preventing conflict, U.S. aid to education in Afghanistan contributed to it 鈥� deliberately in the 1980s, with violence-infused, anti-Soviet curricula, and inadvertently in the 2000s, with misguided stabilization programs,鈥� Burde wrote. 鈥淚n both of these phases, education aid was subordinated to the political goals of strong states and used as a strategic tool 鈥� a situation made possible in part by humanitarians鈥� tendency to neglect education鈥檚 role in conflict.鈥澨�

Drawing on extensive research on the impact of U.S.-funded community-based education programs, Burde also makes a case for a sounder understanding of the role of education in state-building and recommends contributing to sustainable peace through expanded access to community-based education with neutral, quality curriculum. Her book was grounded in eight years of field research in Afghanistan and Pakistan and backed by two decades of work on education in countries affected by conflict.听

成人直播

Immigration. Gun control. Abortion. Gay rights. Religion. Are these and other polarizing topics too controversial to be discussed in today鈥檚 high school classrooms? According to Diana Hess and Paula McAvoy, co-winners of the 2017 Grawemeyer Award in 成人直播, teachers should encourage conversations about difficult issues. These discussions, they opine, help students understand diverse points of view and become more politically engaged adults.

Hess and McAvoy鈥檚 2014 book, 鈥淭he Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic 成人直播,鈥� explores the role of teachers in perpetuating serious political deliberation in schools. The book is based on a 4-year study of 35 teachers and their 1,000-plus students.

鈥淭eachers are beginning to worry that all controversial topics are taboo,鈥� said 成人直播 Award Director Marion Hambrick. 鈥淭his timely book dispels that notion and provides tangible evidence that the classroom is an unusual political place where students can learn to carefully examine divisive issues.鈥�

is dean of the School of 成人直播 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and directs the Center for Ethics and 成人直播 at the same university.

Religion

In 鈥淭he New Abolition: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel,鈥� social ethicist Gary Dorrien describes the early history of the Black Social Gospel from its 19th-century founding to its close association in the 20th century with W.E.B. Du Bois. He offers a new perspective on modern Christianity and the civil rights era by delineating the tradition of social justice theology and activism that led to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dorrien鈥檚 book earned him the 2017 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, given jointly by UofL and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

鈥淲e urgently need this historical and theological account in our religious communities and public discourse,鈥� said Tyler Mayfield, Faculty Director of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion and the A.B. Rhodes Associate Professor of Old Testament at Louisville Seminary. 鈥淒orrien鈥檚 book highlights a disremembered part of American religious history, one that holds relevance for contemporary discussions about race and U.S. religion. His compelling narration of the Black Social Gospel as a profoundly religious tradition of thought and activism underscores the crucial connections among the Black Church, social Christianity, the creation of black institutions, and the struggle for freedom.鈥�

Dorrien, an Episcopal priest, is a professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and professor of Religion at Columbia University.

Psychology

Marsha Linehan, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which balances acceptance and commitment to change in treating mental illness, distinguishing it from previous standard interventions. Research shows DBT to be an effective treatment for conditions previously considered untreatable, such as borderline personality disorder.

Linehan鈥檚 work has earned her the 2017 Grawemeyer Award for Psychology. In developing DBT, she sought out difficult-to-treat, suicidal individuals and, by trial and error, created an effective intervention, which led to treatment for multiple disorders. She drew on her personal experiences 鈥� she acknowledged publicly in 2011 her own longtime struggle with high suicidality 鈥� and training as a spiritual director and Zen Master to develop an approach that taught patients how to regulate dysfunctional behaviors. The therapy relies on a toolkit of behavioral skills, including mindfulness practices, that were previously not common in mainstream psychology.

听鈥淚n addition to being considered the state-of-the-art treatment for chronically suicidal individuals, dialectical behavior therapy has been found to be effective for other behavioral disorders, including eating disorders, addiction, anxiety related disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression,鈥� said Professor Woody Petry, award director.

All 2017 winners will present free lectures about their award-winning ideas when they visit Louisville in April to accept their $100,000 prizes.