Tips for Teaching the 2024 Presidential Election, Part One: Preparing the Adults
#1: Consider well in advance: are you in or out? (posted 12/8/23)
At a basic level, schools really need to decide if they want to tangle with this presidential election or not. Do you see it as a teaching tool? Or do you see it as a distraction that threatens to disrupt the learning environment for your students?
I hope most schools will be in—that they will seize the civic moment, especially given its historic divisiveness. This is a time to help students develop curiosity about and empathy for those with whom they disagree. The divisions this election will highlight are not going away on their own; we owe it to our kids to help them develop the skills and dispositions to ease them.
But maybe there are compelling reasons to think that for your school, given its learners or its culture or any number of variables, you’ll take a pass—that attending to the election would be more of a distraction than a benefit.
Whatever the case, this is the time to start planning.
#2: Decide WHY you’ll teach about the election (posted 12/15/23)
This is not self-evident. In the absence of direction from school leaders, there’s likely to be broad (probably unspoken) disagreement among faculty (and, yes, parents) about what’s to be gained by paying attention to the election.
Some will understand the task to be teaching electoral mechanics (such as how the electoral college works) or what the role of the president is. In this school of thought, there is a body of information related to the election that will help students become more savvy citizens. Some may believe that the particular personalities, rhetoric, or issues involved in this election are beside the point, since the goal is to know generally how elections work and what the people who win them are supposed to do. Some teachers, consequently, may believe that it is their job to shield students from the noise of our polarized political landscape—that this messiness just obscures the timeless civic content that has always been and should always be taught.
Others, however, may see the election as a living lesson in how to share opinions and manage disagreement. In this school of thought, it’s fair game to refer to what the actual candidates are saying, or to wonder how actual people feel about and are impacted by the things being said, or to discuss contentious issues regarding campaign promises or the conduct of candidates, etc. In this school of thought, the election is an opportunity to help students express themselves and to develop curiosity and understanding about those with whom they disagree. The polarization is not a distraction; it’s a national reality that calls for teachers to help students develop skills to ease it.
I belong to both camps. Students need to know basic civics, but we also should lean into the election because it helps us teach students how to coexist with ideas or people that can feel uncomfortable to them. I hope many people will agree with me. Either way, school leaders should have a huddle as soon as possible to decide—and eventually articulate for the rest of the school community—what they want to get out of this election. Abdicating that responsibility tosses the job to individual teachers, who will inevitably approach this monumental teaching moment in disparate ways, undermining students’ education and leaving everyone open to assaults from disgruntled parents.
Really, it’s better to get ahead of this thing and decide what you want to get out of it.
#3 Decide what you would do if… (posted 1/5/24)
Way in advance of the general election (which in my book would be this winter or spring of 2024), carve out some time for a faculty meeting in which you imagine a tricky election-related scenario. One reliably contentious, guaranteed-to-get-people-worked-up hypothetical: the case of a student coming to school wearing a MAGA hat. But feel free to swap it out for a Biden hat (do they even make Biden hats?).
Oh look! They do!
(image captured from: https://www.ebay.com/itm/266234340296)
I’ve found that it actually doesn’t matter all that much what the particulars of the scenario are—whether you imagine a kid displaying a provocative symbol, or whether you imagine a conservative speaker being protested, or a teacher sharing a political point of view that rubs a family the wrong way. Most times, if you toss out a dicey scenario and ask teachers how they would manage it, you will eventually get to the good stuff, which is a host of important questions: do we allow politics into this school? How much do we value free speech, especially if that speech offends members of our community? Do we expect our students to feel comfortable at school? Do we expect our students to feel discomfort at school? How might other people see this situation differently?
It is those questions that have the potential to generate some common understanding among faculty about what the school is trying to do during what is guaranteed to be a fraught electoral season. A purposeful learning experience for the students requires the adults to first hash out some tricky questions behind closed doors.
#4 Secure mask before assisting child (posted 1/17/24)
Bring on this election, you say! With colleagues, you’ve clarified why you’ll pay attention to this circus, and you’ve game-planned what to do in a handful of tricky but foreseeable situations. Doing so has surfaced a number of challenging questions that really, come to think about it, are about the purpose of education itself. You haven’t answered those, exactly, but they have provoked thought; you’re working on them.
But what about you? You say you’re interested in helping students reach across lines of divide and disagreement, and you see the election as a tool that will help them get there. You want students to be more charitable, less judge-y, in their estimation of those with whom they disagree. You want them to better understand the role of emotion in sharpening the divide between the political “us” and “them.” You want kids to discover how media shapes their views—not only of issues but of people. You want them to be curious, and civil, and respectful, even in the face of disagreement. But what about you?
How does your morning get started? With a bracing cup of outrage, delivered via iPhone from your trusted source of news? How do you feel about this election, and about the personalities involved in it? How often do you ask questions of those across the political aisle? What are you doing to position yourself to be a curious, bridge-building member of this democracy? How are you managing the stress of the electoral cycle so that you can support your students? What are you doing to tune out some of the overwhelming negativity of the election and tune into the hopefulness of democracy in action?
Let’s start with us. Find a human being who will vote for the other candidate and ask why—and mean it. Then ask follow up questions. Take stock of your news intake and try varying it. What about your emotional well-being? Is the election taking a toll on your mental health? Would you benefit from limiting your use of that little pocket computer and its ceaseless stream of doom? Watch something hopeful. Take a walk. Breath. Secure your own mask before assisting child.
#5 Don’t forget the parents! (posted 1/24/24)
I know. They’re scary. They complain, and they accuse, and they can be awfully ungrateful, considering the number of times we have to ask some of their children to please just get a tissue and stop making that noise in our classroom. But also, we should remember that these parents who complain and accuse and remain ungrateful are usually just a vocal minority. Most are pretty agreeable.
If we want this election season to go well—if we want to teach kids civic lessons and equip them with the skills and dispositions they’ll need to reach across lines of divide and disagreement—we better touch base with the parents. For real. Well in advance of the 2024 presidential election, we should loop them into the plan.
So what would we say? Here are some suggestions:
Remind them what’s important at this school and what we want for their kids.
Tell them how those goals will be furthered by attending to the election.
Give them a couple of concrete examples of how election-related content could appear in your teaching.
Tell them what you won’t be doing (such as advocating for a particular candidate).
Invite them to tell you what worries them about how the election will be handled.
Tell them how they can help reinforce the lessons you’re trying to teach (one great way is to model curiosity at home—suggest they ask their kids questions like: I wonder how that candidate came to that position? What about the people who disagreed with you in class about that issue—what points did they make? How has your mind changed recently? How could someone see it differently?
Sum it up—tell them the election will remind us of the divisiveness that plagues our country and that teaching our kids to ease that divisiveness calls on us to attend to—not ignore—teachable moments such as the election.
Parents like a nice heads-up, and they like to know that there’s a purpose and a plan for what happens at school. They’ll appreciate the outreach.
