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K12 Dive
Violent US Capitol insurrection presents difficult classroom discussions
Roger Riddell
Jan. 6, 2021
Dive Brief:
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., was stormed Wednesday afternoon
by a mob supporting President Donald Trump, aiming to disrupt the House
and Senate certification process of President-elect Joe Biden's win in
the 2020 presidential election. The events present educators with yet
another difficult topic to navigate in classroom discussion.
In addition to creating potentially loaded debate in the classroom, the
events — which NPR reports left four dead and resulted in dozens of
police injuries and arrests — also require educators to be prepared to
provide supports for students whose anxiety and uncertainty is spiked
by footage and photos of the events in the news and on social media.
A number of education organizations have resources available that offer
blueprints for talking to students about protests, unsettling
information and violent events — including Facing History and
Ourselves, Common Sense Media, the National Association of School
Psychologists and the National Education Association.
Dive Insight:
In the wake of the storming of the Capitol building, education leaders,
including current U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her
expected successor, Miguel A. Cardona, issued statements via social
media condemning the events.
The events of Wednesday afternoon add to a long list of
difficult-to-navigate topics in the classroom. Even before the COVID-19
pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests presented challenges for
lesson planning over the past year, last year's impeachment hearings
served as fuel for potentially tense classroom discussions, and recent
years have seen mass shootings occur on a consistent enough basis to
provoke fear and anxiety among students.
However, demonstrations in particular — regardless of their tone —
offer a window through which to engage students in lessons on civics,
the limits of the First Amendment's protection of speech, and
consequences that may exist under the law. Following a year where Black
Lives Matter protests led to a consideration of implicit biases within
society, comparing and contrasting the events can also add layers to
those discussions.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned last year that
"civic education has fallen by the wayside," and a report from Stanford
researchers published last year in the American Educational Research
Journal stated the nation's students are ready for complex, nuanced
civics instruction.
"As educators, we take seriously our responsibility to prepare young
people for civic life and to be models of peaceful participants in a
democratic society that serves all people. What we witnessed at the
Capitol today was the antithesis of that ideal," Council of Chief State
School Officers CEO Carissa Moffat Miller said in a statement.
And in a statement from AASA, The School Superintendents Association,
Executive Director Daniel Domenech said, "The herculean efforts being
done by school district administrators, building leaders, teachers and
parents to educate our young learners regarding what’s right and what’s
wrong was indirectly challenged following the senseless act of
vandalism at the Capitol building."
Social-emotional supports are also key in these discussions, which
require compassion and empathy on the part of students and educators
alike. Keeping discourse civil and respectful on highly polarized
topics can be a challenge in particular, though learning to do so is a
skill that will serve students well into their adult lives as they
shape what the world looks like in the future.
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