Educators reckon with historic events in D.C.

GREENWICH — A somber mood permeated Brunswick School on Thursday morning.

After the violence of the previous day, when rioters breached the nation’s Capitol and delayed Congressional certification of the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, many students seemed unsettled, Upper School History Department Chair Kristine Brennan said.

“It has been a topic of conversations in every single class today,” Brennan said. “It is obviously dominating their thoughts.”

The violence in Washington raised a multitude of questions about outgoing President Donald Trump’s ability to serve, about the peaceful transition of power and about

Congressional security, to name a few. The events confused and unsettled many across the country, and left educators and students to reckon with the fallout.

“This is yet another event for students to grapple with, in what has been a really difficult year and continues to be a really difficult year,” Brennan said.

The approach taken by Brunswick educators, she said, was twofold: to create safe spaces for students to ask questions and to use the events as a teachable moments about civics and the Constitution.

In particular, Brennan said, the school’s Advanced Placement (AP)

U.S. Government teachers were delving into the details of what transpired, including details of the

25th Amendment, which allows for the removal of a president, and the Electoral College.

Already, in a presidential election year, the curriculum deals heavily with current events. That’s especially true this school year, as the situation continues to evolve in surprising and tragic ways, as happened Wednesday.

“I can’t emphasize enough that these are going to be ongoing conversations in the upcoming days and weeks,” Brennan said.

Similarly, teachers at Greenwich High School used Wednesday’s events to build on year-long themes. Ryan Jones, an AP Government teacher, said an undercurrent of the entire first semester was polarization in American politics. On Thursday, he tasked his students with finding solution to bridge the political chasm exemplified in the riot in Washington, D.C.

“The central elements of their plans were to be discerning consumers of information and to listen to one another,” Jones said. “Many students also brought up a recent class discussion of the limits of free speech. The consensus was clear: words matter and have consequences. Overall, it was a day filled with hope.”

Karen Boyea, an AP U.S. History and honors civics teacher at Greenwich High, said her student wrestled with difficult questions, including, What does it mean to be a patriot in 2021? And will polarization result in the rise of third parties?

Courtney Powers, a Greenwich High civics and global studies teacher, had students create a “jamboard,” where they defined terms such “mob, riot, protest, siege, treason, terrorist, coup, sedition and insurrection” and then had a group discussion about the words.

For many students, grappling with those phrases and the events was not easy, she said.

At Greenwich Academy, Head of Middle School Becky Walker said students expressed a combination of shock and disappointment over the events at the Capitol. Middle School history teachers on Thursday led discussions on the events at the Capitol, she said.

“The goal was to help the students understand, contextualize and process what occurred,” Walker said. “The students had the opportunity to ask questions, share their concerns and talk about their hopes for the future. ... While I wouldn’t want to generalize, it seemed that the girls’ perspective on America is one of optimism and hope for greater unity.”

Greenwich Country Day School Head of School Adam Rohdie, who also teaches grade 8 history, said he sent a message to the school community Wednesday night, instructing staff of all disciplines to leave space on Thursday for conversations about the violence that occurred in Washington, D.C.

“There are times when you want to just go on teaching Algebra 2,” Rohdie said. “But this is probably not one of those times.”

He also reminded teachers, students and families of the school’s values — to engage in debate in a civil way, to disagree without being disagreeable and to challenge ideas, but not necessarily the person sharing those ideas.