On the George Orwell Award’s 50th anniversary, Stitzlein calls for explicitly teaching honesty
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) named Sarah M. Stitzlein’s book Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era: Emphasizing Truth in the Education of Citizens as winner of the 2025 George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honest and Clarity in Public Language.
“This award from NCTE reinforces what I say in the opening sentence of my book: Honesty matters,” Stitzlein said. “In a world swirling with competing political groups stating conflicting facts, citizens are left unsure which facts are true and whom to trust. The role of honesty in civic life is in jeopardy, hampering our ability to solve pressing shared problems. It is my hope that this book recommits citizens to truth-seeking and truth-telling.”
Stitzlein is a philosopher of education and teacher at the University of Cincinnati, where she studies how schools can help prepare citizens for the challenges of our current political environment. She is the editor of the journal Democracy & Education, author of five books, and contributor to the National Academy of Education’s report on improving civic discourse.
The George Orwell Award, established in 1975 and selected by the NCTE Public Language Award Committee, recognizes people who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse.
“Stitzlein’s straightforward and practical writing prompts vital conversations and examinations of truth and honesty that are critical in our current milieu,” the Committee said of Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era. “She challenges us to adopt a cross-disciplinary inquiry approach within citizenship education and grounds the work in current events that have a direct impact on public schools’ and teachers’ relationships with parents, politicians, and other stakeholders.”
As Stitzlein writes in her book, focusing on the present in citizenship education “means recognizing that children are already political players, not just citizens in the making. We must do democracy with them in the present in our schools, rather than holding off democracy as something that we just teach for later in adulthood.”
The first George Orwell Award went to David Wise in 1975 for The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power. Recipients in the five decades since include Ted Koppel, Noam Chomsky, Seymour Hersh, and Michael Pollan. Jessica Lander received the 2024 award for Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education.
Stitzlein will be honored at the 2025 NCTE Annual Convention in Denver, Colorado. Digital copies of the award seal are available upon request.
About NCTE
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is the professional organization for literacy teachers spanning preK through college. Through the expertise and advocacy from its members’ professional research, practice, and knowledge, NCTE has served at the forefront of every major improvement in the teaching and learning of English and the language arts since 1911. For more information, please visit ncte.org.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Allie Ciaramella, NCTE: aciaramella@ncte.org