US teachers help students make sense of violence at US Capitol

Social studies teachers all over the US set aside lesson plans this week to help young pupils make sense of the scenes of the violent siege in Washington by supporters of President Donald Trump.

The teachers tried varied approaches. Some were cautious and deliberately holding off on historical comparisons with the recent events and some trod cautiously in light of differing political viewpoints in their classrooms and communities.

In a school year shaped by US’s reckoning over racial injustice, the coronavirus pandemic and the constraints of distance learning, educators tried to hear out students’ fears and concerns and instil a sense of history and even hopefulness.

After watching the events unfold on television, a world history and civics teacher in a Massachusetts school stayed up most of the night exchanging emails with his department chair, planning out lessons around what was unfolding.

A teacher in Alabama presented photographs of the insurrection at the US Capitol without commentary and asked students to write poems in reflection. A civics educator in Connecticut urged her students to work towards making the country better.

A teacher made a point to let students watch the chaos unfold on TV and asked them to reflect on it. The students submitted poems anonymously and they weren’t read in class. The inputs helped the teacher understand the students’ frame of mind and help in guiding future instruction. The poems showed a desire for a more harmonious government, a more bipartisan approach and a belief that things can get better.

Several teachers also heard out students deeply affected by the photographs of Confederate flags carried through the halls of Capitol and who saw a double standard in the heavier response by police to Black Lives Matter protests.

A Minnesota teacher set aside his planned lesson on state treaties and instead grabbed the morning newspapers with their “insurrection” headlines to use as visual aids to teach his sixth-grade students, who are learning remotely.