Dr. Tim Shriver Brings Message Of Dignity To Combat Contempt To Public School Faculty

Activist Tim Shriver, of the influential Kennedy and Shriver families, gave a keynote address to Nantucket’s educators as part of the Nantucket Public Schools’ opening day for faculty and staff on Monday, highlighting the importance of dignity and respect both in and outside the classroom.

“The antidote to contempt is dignity: is treating people with dignity, treating them as though they are born with inherent worth,” Shriver said. “All of you are in a profession predicated on the idea of treating people with dignity.”

Shriver is the founder of UNITE, which advocates for bridging divides in American society and the importance of dignity. The Dignity Index, developed by Shriver’s organizations, seeks to categorize language and assign it a numerical score based on how well it reflects principles of dignity and respect.

During his talk on Monday, Shriver argued that American society is now “addicted” to contempt, describing what he has labeled the “contempt industrial complex,” in which algorithms, politicians, and partisan news outlets create a self-reinforcing loop that amplifies and rewards divisive rhetoric.

“Everyone in the loop gets rewarded for elevating contempt,” he said.

Shriver also contended that teaching is itself a relationship.

“Teaching and learning is a relationship,” he said. “It’s not the relationship supporting the transmission of algebra…or the structure of a sonnet; it’s actually that the structure of a sonnet is a relationship between you and the sonnet.”

Shriver is also the chair of the Special Olympics, and has served on other non-profit boards and produced films. Early in his career, he worked as a high school teacher and counselor.

“Our country is not based on the idea that we will not have differences. Our country is based on the idea that we will have a system that allows us to resolve differences. So the problem isn’t differences; the problem is treating people with contempt when we have differences,” Shriver said on Monday.

In addition to the Nantucket Public Schools faculty, numerous town of Nantucket department heads, including town manager Libby Gibson, police chief Jody Kasper, and fire chief Michael Cranson, were also in attendance.