Today鈥檚 post is the second in a series offering guidance to educators as they begin planning lessons about November鈥檚 election.
鈥楬elp Students Reach Across Lines of Divide鈥�
Kent Lenci is the author of . Through his business, , he helps schools prepare today鈥檚 students to ease tomorrow鈥檚 political polarization:
It鈥檚 the question on everyone鈥檚 mind!
As with any election, we want to teach the juicy bits of civics that roll around every four years鈥攕uch as how the electoral college works and what primaries and political parties and delegates are. This year, though, given the country鈥檚 polarization, it feels like a daunting task. So how will we teach the election this year? If we鈥檙e on our game, we鈥檒l do so in ways that help students reach across lines of divide and disagreement鈥攖hat acknowledge, rather than ignore, political polarization and that lay the groundwork to ease that polarization.
My most sincere recommendation is to craft a set of durable, visible, thought-provoking norms that help students understand how they are supposed to engage with each other鈥攁nd then stick to them. The election might get slippery. Communities need guardrails. These are the guardrails.
A number of resources could help. has a helpful lesson on co-creating such agreements, as does the . Most of the questions that plague teachers鈥擶hat do I do if someone says something that feels out-of-bounds? How do I create space for those in the political minority? What do I do if I, myself, freeze in the face of commentary that challenges my deeply held beliefs?鈥�have their answers in sturdy community agreements. Take the time to build this strong foundation, and in times of uncertainty and duress, it will ground you and your students.
I also suggest that we attend to the candidates for president and to their policy proposals but that we keep our balance. It鈥檚 no secret that our political leaders can at times be lousy role models, and featuring their more inflammatory rhetoric may feel like a disservice to our students. Let鈥檚 remember that those who draw the media spotlight are not the only show in town, and we can expose our students to elected officials who are in fact playing nicely.
of the 2020 Democratic and Republican candidates for governor of Utah is one example. Spencer Cox won that election, and, as the chair of the National Governors Association, he launched a initiative that features video snippets of governors of opposing political viewpoints engaging in civil discourse. The election invites us to expose students to this sort of modeling.
Just as we might leverage the buzz of the presidential election to highlight leaders who bridge divides, we can also turn our attention to those overlooked 鈥渄own-ballot鈥� candidates鈥攖he folks running for a congressional seat, or mayor, or school board or city council positions.
Doing so can harvest many of the same learning opportunities we get by attending to the presidential election itself鈥攚e can look at maps, and do math, and discuss campaign promises. But, in contrast to the presidential candidates, we can get a lot closer to the people who in most cases are going to be much closer themselves to the issues that affect students鈥� lives on a day-to-day basis.
features a lesson plan on local elections, as do and . So yes, we absolutely should pay attention to the presidency this election season and to the people who covet that job, but 鈥渢eaching the election鈥� does not require that we fixate only on those people.
Ultimately, our most important job is to instill in our students a curiosity about and an appreciation for our democratic processes. To do that, we need to have some fun. Launch a contest to see who can predict the electoral vote most accurately 鈥� or the popular vote of your home state 鈥� or the voter turnout 鈥� or anything else that taps into students鈥� competitive instincts. Wear your most spirited outfits. Show a 鈥淪aturday Night Live鈥� election skit. Smile. Amid an overwhelming and dispiriting narrative of divisiveness and dysfunction, let鈥檚 help students find the delight in this election season and show them a pathway toward easing the polarization that keeps us up at night.
School House Rock
., is a veteran anti-racist educator with over 27 years of experience in the field and a Public Voice Fellow at UT Austin with The OpEd Project. Follow her @2WardEquity on Instagram, Threads, and X (Twitter):
One conversation at a time.
What we are dealing with in this era is beyond polarization.
Case in point, as I write this post, the U.S. Supreme Court has just handed down a decision to grant wide immunity to presidents. As I listened to the various perspectives on the decision, I thought back to the 鈥淪choolhouse Rock鈥� cartoons I watched as a young child and wondered what they taught us about the king who once ruled those who came to the Americas. These cartoons were created to teach a narrative. Each had a catchy tune and simple to remember content. I looked up the videos and found one, . Of course, the cartoon introduces revisionist/partial history that cannot be addressed in this word count.
In the video, the king declares, 鈥淎nything I say, do it my way 鈥� don鈥檛 you get to feeling independent 鈥榗ause I鈥檓 going to force you to obey.鈥� What the SCOTUS decision makes painfully clear is living in the United States does not automatically grant one freedom to be. With this decision essentially everything we know, the protections we value granted to us as U.S. citizens are now subject to the whim of the next POTUS.
Because I understand the complexity of who gets to be in spaces and places in the U.S., I plan to use humanizing pedagogy to teach about the 2024 presidential election. That pedagogy requires me to co-create space in my classroom for open dialogue. I will be and will invite my students to be open to ideas, not hate, or demeaning words or gestures.
My students are college age. Here is a narrative of a sample lesson I might teach:
As I facilitate learning, I plan to take an inquiry stance to encourage students to think deeply about how polarization of ideology might play out daily in their world. A deep understanding of how their world acts on them will hopefully spur them to vote in the election.
Using the 鈥淪choolhouse Rock鈥� cartoons, I invite my students to analyze the messages. As they analyze, they can ask: What years were the cartoons made? What was happening in the world at that time? Who was the target audience? Why? What is the current age span of the young people exposed to 鈥淪choolhouse Rock鈥� cartoons as young people?
Next, I encourage my students to compare the messaging of the 鈥淪choolhouse Rock鈥� era to the messaging current day and analyze the impact messaging has on our daily political decisions.
This inquiry process invites all perspectives to the table. It is important that I create dialogue space for all perspectives, especially the ones that conflict with mine. As the teacher, it is my role to invite critical dialogue. Critical does not mean negative. It means that my students will be pushed to think deeply, reflect, and also to write about their thinking.
With this potentially polarizing topic, it is imperative that as I attend to my curriculum, I provide space and fluidity in the content for students to insert their voice. I want to hear their questions, quandaries, and find opportunities within open discussion or set aside time to go a bit deeper on something we are still pondering.
In this era of polarization at every level of government, our young people need to understand the purpose of the presidential election. They must understand the purpose of state, regional, county, and city elections. They also need to understand why the U.S. Constitution establishes three branches of government, how those branches have traditionally worked, and be invited to get curious about how those branches currently operate.
I want my students to understand how the decisions that are made by local and state legislators impact their finances, play, food choices, family, and all decisions they are currently free to make living in the U.S.
Thanks to Kent and Angela for contributing their thoughts!
Today鈥檚 post answered this question:
In this era of polarization, how do you plan to teach about the 2024 presidential election?
In Part One, Lindsay Lyons, Sarah Cooper, and Erica Silva contributed their responses.
Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it鈥檚 selected or if you鈥檇 prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
You can also contact me on Twitter at .
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