Teaching Civility in Uncivil Times
As I reflect back on the start of this school year, it’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Typically at this time of year, I look forward to time with my parents, siblings, and extended family and getting a needed time-out from the fast-paced life of schools. I also try to predict if my family will survive the evening as we talk about (or avoid) certain topics at the dinner table - namely, politics. It’s hard to say what a Zoom Thanksgiving will look or sound like this year, but I know for some of us family get-togethers are not getting any easier.
Just before the last national election in 2016, when I was serving as a school district superintendent, a veteran high school teacher told me that he’d never been so stressed out in his career. Teachers are often asked to cover civics, social issues, current events, and other topics many of us won’t dare broach this Thanksgiving - even with our own families. And while there is little doubt that conversations about the world around us are getting more and more strained, our educators have a duty - especially now - to help our children understand our nation’s history, our civic systems, the political process, and how the media they are bombarded with every day impacts thinking and behavior during a bitter national election. Good teaching in these tumultuous times is an act of courage - and we need courageous teachers now more than ever.
I often hear from families, and read demands in the media, that our students need more civics instruction: our kids need to better understand how our government works; kids should understand the constitution more deeply; kids need to improve their capacity to reason, listen, evaluate, and make sense of the world around them. It’s true that the discussion of social issues - including political conflict - is a powerful, necessary means for nurturing our children’s civic interest, engagement, and critical thinking. It’s also true that teachers who tackle these issues in our classrooms often experience intense push-back... and they need our support to carry on.
Consider trying to help students grapple with the high school standards below in the context of a charged and potentially protracted national election. Do this while also picturing a digital classroom full of adolescents equipped with the power of mobile phones, cameras, and social media:
"Students will:
- Analyze political parties, interest and community groups, and mass media and how they influence the beliefs and behaviors of individuals, and local, state, and national constituencies
- Examine the pluralistic realities of society recognizing issues of equity and evaluating the need for change
- Construct arguments using precise claims, integrating and evaluating information provided by multiple sources, diverse media, and formats, while acknowledging counterclaims and evidentiary strengths and weaknesses"
Our leaders can’t even have respectful and open discussions about these topics! I’ve heard from teachers who have described students and their parents as ready to pounce, accuse, and reject any information or discussion that doesn’t support a particular political view. Good teaching is simply an impossible task if we cannot afford our teachers the necessary grace to engage children in these important and uncomfortable topics.
Be courageous - the NWRESD stands with you in your efforts to help students engage in safe discussions on civics, current events, social justice, government, and media.
We are also working to implement Oregon’s new All Students Belong guidance, which provides an important opportunity to support our growth in protecting our diverse student bodies during these incredibly charged times. If you haven’t already read this guidance, I highly recommend that you do. As we implement this guidance, we will roll out additional professional learning opportunities and a reporting process for those who experience or are impacted by the hate speech or symbols that might arise in some of these conversations.
Towards this end, our Instructional Services team is creating a short activity for all of our schools, programs and staff to participate in next week.
The objective of this activity will be to help each of us create safe learning environments for our students, our families, and our peers from all backgrounds that promotes open, respectful learning. As an anti-racist organization, we must ensure that every student of every background has the opportunity to thrive in our classrooms and learn to interrupt bias in our midst. Principals, managers, and team leaders will include this opportunity in your next regularly scheduled time together.
As we consider the intense rhetoric that surfaces during election season, remember that families entrust educators with their children and they depend on welcoming, warm and inclusive school communities. I want to thank you for the time you commit to your own learning and also thank you for promoting civil discourse while creating safe spaces for learning, healing and understanding. Your work on behalf of children and our communities at large is incredibly important - especially now.
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